“Your ladyship’s most respectful admirer, and sincere friend, “CLARENCE HERVEY.” “P. S.--Is there any hope that your friend, Miss Portman, may spend the winter in town?” Though Lady Delacour had been much fatigued by the exertion of her spirits during the day, she sat up at night to write to Mr. Hervey. Her love and gratitude to Miss Portman interested her most warmly for her happiness, and she was persuaded that the most effectual way to secure it would be to promote her union with her _first love_. Lady Delacour, who had also the best opinion of Clarence Hervey, and the most sincere friendship for him, thought she was likewise acting highly for his interest; and she felt that she had some merit in at once parting with him from the train of her admirers, and urging him to become a dull, married man. Besides these generous motives, she was, perhaps, a little influenced by jealousy of the superior power which Lady Anne Percival had in so short a time acquired over Belinda’s mind. “Strange,” thought she, “if love and I be not a match for Lady Anne Percival and reason!” To do Lady Delacour justice, it must be observed, that she took the utmost care in her letter not to _commit_ her friend; she wrote with all the delicate address of which she was mistress. She began by rallying her correspondent on his indulging himself so charmingly in _the melancholy of genius_; and she prescribed as a cure to her _malheureux imaginaire_, as she called him, those joys of domestic life which he so well knew how to paint. “_Précepte commence, exemple achève_,” said her ladyship. “You will never see me _la femme comme il y en a peu_, till I see you _le bon mari_. Belinda Portman has this day returned to me from Oakly-park, fresh, blooming, wise, and gay, as country air, flattery, philosophy, and love can make her. It seems that she has had full employment for her head and heart. Mr. Percival and Lady Anne, by right of science and reason, have taken possession of the head, and a Mr. Vincent, their ci-devant ward and declared favourite, has laid close siege to the heart, of which he is in a fair way, I think, to take possession, by the right of conquest. As far as I can understand--for I have not yet seen _le futur_--he deserves my Belinda; for besides being as handsome as any hero of romance, ancient or modern, he has a soul in which neither spot nor blemish can be found, except the amiable weakness of being desperately in love--a weakness which we ladies are apt to prefer to the most philosophic stoicism: apropos of philosophy--we may presume, that notwithstanding Mr. V---- is a creole, he has been bred up by his guardian in the class of men who learn by the experience of others. As such, according to your system, he has a right to expect to be a _happy man_, has not he? According to Mrs. Stanhope’s system, I am sure that he has: for his thousands and tens of thousands, as I am credibly informed, pass the comprehension of the numeration table.