by professional preparations and literary exertions, and hoped that, while on the one hand the affiance was suspended, on the other great advances would be made towards its conclusion with prudence and propriety. He had frequent conferences with his sister, in which, by addressing himself to her understanding and elevated sentiments, he endeavoured to persuade her to refuse every proffer for an immediate or early marriage. Maria perceived that her brother was well acquainted with the state of her mind; and did not affect either ignorance of his meaning, or indifference to its subject; she candidly owned that her opinion of Mr. Hamilton was very high, but denied that her heart was irretrievably engaged; having before formed the resolution he desired, she readily and strongly promised adherence. Hamilton had already outstayed his time, until a letter from his mother earnestly requested that he would come speedily to town, to join and direct the autumnal excursion, and he had taken his place for the metropolis for the next day but one, which was to be on a Monday.--Saturday evening he was pensive and sad, and Maria was not joyful; both her brother and lover observed in her countenance and voice the softness of sorrow, while a forced cheerfulness concealed her emotions from her father. Having in the stillness and solitude of a night uninterrupted by sleep, given full vent to her tenderness, she was at the usual hour in the breakfast room, exhibiting marks of increasing dejection, which even her father must have discovered. Our hero directed to her the touching melancholy of his countenance; and she was almost overcome, when her father entering with an open letter, gave it to his daughter, saying, “Read that, my girl: by Jupiter it will be a merry year this; two jaunts in one summer.” “Two jaunts,” said his son. “Yes, your uncle Benjamin, instead of wintering in the West Indies as we thought, is come to Portsmouth with his ship, and begs that we may meet him next week in London, to go down with him to his box on the coast of Sussex.” “On the coast of Sussex!” said Hamilton, eagerly. “Yes, near Worthing, ten miles from Brighton, in the slope of the Downs; a sweet little place it is; he sends Maria there a draft of a hundred pounds, for crincum crancums, as he calls it, for herself, and not forgetting her sisters at school. So Moll, we shall be new-rigged.” Maria’s face now testified joy and animation, which she in vain endeavoured to conceal or even to moderate. These movements her father observing, turned to the young gentlemen, and facetiously remarked the wonderful effects of dress and finery upon young women. His son said he was assured the hope of seeing their beloved uncle made _one_ part of the cause of her joy, though not the _sole_, he whispered to his sister. “Ah,” said the squire, “brother Ben has a rough face and manner, but he has a kind heart.” Hamilton with the utmost delight observed the change