songs, but not delight him thus.

28th.--Yesterday, we all went to the Grove, Mr. Hargrave's much-neglected
home. His mother frequently asks us over, that she may have the pleasure
of her dear Walter's company; and this time she had invited us to a
dinner-party, and got together as many of the country gentry as were
within reach to meet us. The entertainment was very well got up; but I
could not help thinking about the cost of it all the time. I don't like
Mrs. Hargrave; she is a hard, pretentious, worldly-minded woman. She has
money enough to live very comfortably, if she only knew how to use it
judiciously, and had taught her son to do the same; but she is ever
straining to keep up appearances, with that despicable pride that shuns
the semblance of poverty as of a shameful crime. She grinds her
dependents, pinches her servants, and deprives even her daughters and
herself of the real comforts of life, because she will not consent to
yield the palm in outward show to those who have three times her wealth;
and, above all, because she is determined her cherished son shall be
enabled to 'hold up his head with the highest gentlemen in the land.'
This same son, I imagine, is a man of expensive habits, no reckless
spendthrift and no abandoned sensualist, but one who likes to have
'everything handsome about him,' and to go to a certain length in
youthful indulgences, not so much to gratify his own tastes as to
maintain his reputation as a man of fashion in the world, and a
respectable fellow among his own lawless companions; while he is too
selfish to consider how many comforts might be obtained for his fond
mother and sisters with the money he thus wastes upon himself: as long as
they can contrive to make a respectable appearance once a year, when they
come to town, he gives himself little concern about their private
stintings and struggles at home. This is a harsh judgment to form of
'dear, noble-minded, generous-hearted Walter,' but I fear it is too just.

Mrs. Hargrave's anxiety to make good matches for her daughters is partly
the cause, and partly the result, of these errors: by making a figure in
the world, and showing them off to advantage, she hopes to obtain better
chances for them; and by thus living beyond her legitimate means, and
lavishing so much on their brother, she renders them portionless, and
makes them burdens on her hands. Poor Milicent, I fear, has already
fallen a sacrifice to the manoeuvrings of