are not unskilled in quarrying upon destined prey. Miss Dartwell was a very likely girl, with animated and fascinating eyes, a clear and fresh complexion, rosy lips, white teeth, tall, straight, and well made. She was the daughter of a tradesman, who being in tolerable circumstances, proposed, at the instigation of his wife, to breed Fanny to be a young lady, trusting that she would acquire, by marriage, rank and fortune; and thus enable her parents to look down upon their neighbours. With these hopes they had sent her to a boarding school, near the metropolis; there she learned to smatter a little French, to strum a little on the pianoforté, to read a little, and to speak a great deal. The lady governess of the seminary often boasted of her connections, and among these had a brother whom she used to style an officer in the guards, and indeed so he was, and a very useful officer too, and having risen from the ranks to be corporal, had afterwards become a sergeant, then sergeant major, and lastly, an adjutant. He had a son, who, inheriting his military spirit, was now a sergeant of grenadiers, one of the handsomest young fellows on the parade, and peculiarly eminent for his skill in drilling. About this time it began to be deemed expedient by some of the wise persons who superintended female tuition, to have their fair pupils initiated in military affairs; the exercise of a soldier would give them _a free and easy carriage, and improve their shapes_. The lady to whom the formation and guidance of Miss Dartwell was committed, thinking such preceptorial employment might be a good job for her nephew, introduced sergeant Sycamore in this capacity. Miss Fanny, being the tallest of the young corps, occupied the right hand, and thinking it incumbent on her to do honour, by dexterity of performance, to her conspicuous stature and situation, and being well formed, active, and alert, soon surpassed the rest of the company, and was appointed _fugle_. Her exhibitions and evolutions procured great praise from the sergeant, to which she would listen with much complacency. She often would make comparisons between this heroic youth, and the various other teachers of his sex, and declared to her intimates, that he was far before the dancing-master himself. “To be sure, Mr. Cotillion is a very pretty man, but Mr. Sycamore is a very pretty and a very fine man.” Notwithstanding the strict vigilance of boarding schools, the sergeant found means to make a conquest of one of the teachers, no very difficult achievement; and thereby to have various opportunities of conversing with the misses entrusted to her charge: and how could he employ his time better, than in giving them _private_ lessons? Practising the military steps, Miss Dartwell became distinguished for _free and easy carriage_, and the _improvement of her shapes_. Soon after this display of tactics the sergeant, by the influence of another disciple, of much higher rank, who, though