should not have had temper to adopt it. There are men, I believe, and perhaps you are one of them, who, to obtain the object they have in view, can submit to the infolence and caprice of those they hate, whether men or women ;-but I never knew a woman who could patiently bear the infolence of another woman, particularly if she looked on the infulter as her inferior. However perfect a mistress in the art of fimulation, whatever command of temper fhe may have in other points, however fubmiffively she may bear the arrogance of the tyrant man, she loses her patience, forgets her prudence, and, at all hazards, retorts the infults of the woman fhe hates and defpifes. This fingle advantage, which your fex poffeffes, overbalances that fuperiority in the art of diffembling, in the powers of infinuation, in presence of mind, and other qualities afcribed to us, and render's men, on the whole, abler politicians than women, On the present occafion, my YOL. III. felf-command was not put to trial. Fortunately, I was faved fome of the humiliations which you imagined would be neceffary for me to submit to; but I have met with a mortification ftill lefs expected. Townly had good reafon for calling my fon's attempt on the damfel premature and feeble-it was, in all refpects, worse conducted than any project of the fame kind I ever heard of. Instead of waiting till the favourable dispofition she had began to fhow towards him had warmed into maturity, inftead of endeavouring, by a continued refpectful and obfequious behaviour, to throw her off her guard,-what does he do? Why, hearing, one morning, that I had taken the aunt an airing, he waits on the girl with as little ceremony as if it had been by her own appointment; interrupts her, perhaps, in the middle of her morning prayers, or when she was reading a fermon recommended by her uncle, who, I understand, pretends to be religious; and, without being certain that the man was not in the next room, his wife lordship begins to make love to her in a lefs refpectful manne than her had ever before ventured. Well, what happened?-Why, the girl must have been a perfect fimpleton, or of the difpofition of Potiphar's wife, had fhe furrendered on fuch a fummons. Noshe repulfed him in the most fublime style, I'll be bound for it; and on this ground, and no furer foundation, he now confiders. her as a lady of immaculate virtue. To confirm him in which chimera, the heroine gives herself high airs, refuses his vifits, and returns his letters unopened—all with the intention, no doubt, of drawing him in to make a propofal of marriage. She may chance, however, to push that game a little too far. My fon is of a fufpicious temper: he does not want pride. It fhall be my bufinefs to difcover to him the game fhe is play ing, and to roufe his indignation till it fur mounts what he calls his love, but which E. DEANPORT. LETTER LXXXVI. Mifs HORATIA CLIFFORD to Lady DIANA I FRANKLIN. MY DEAR LADY DIANA, HAVE the mortification to inform London. you, that my hopes of living on friendly terms with William are already vanished. He has behaved ungeneroufly. You fhall know every particular. My uncle was so pleased with his company on the day he dined here, that, contrary to his cuftom, he pressed him, with earnestness, to remain the whole evening. My brother, however, took his leave rather early, on the pretence of bufinefs.-Unfortunate business! He promised to dine with us the following day; but, two hours before the hour of dinner, his footman brought a verbal message, importing, "that it would not be in his |