ket of the same evening; my next was to sit down and
read over my letters. As I turned them over, I remarked that there
were none from my father or Lady Charlotte; there was, however, one in
Julia's hand, and also a note from O'Grady. The others were the mere
commonplace correspondence of everyday acquaintances, which I merely
threw my eyes carelessly over ere I consigned them to the fire. My
fair cousin's possessed--I cannot explain why--a most unusual degree of
interest for me; and throwing myself back in my chair, I gave myself up
to its perusal.

The epistle opened by a half-satirical account of the London season then
nearly drawing to its close, in which various characters and incidents
I have not placed before my readers, but all well known to me,
were touched with that quiet, subdued raillery she excelled in. The
flirtations, the jiltings, the matches that were on or off, the rumoured
duels, debts, and difficulties of every one we were acquainted with,
were told with a most amusing smartness--all showing, young as she was,
how thoroughly the wear and tear of fashionable life had invested her
with the intricate knowledge of character, and the perfect acquaintance
with all the intrigues and byplay of the world. 'How unlike Louisa
Bellew!' said I, as I laid down the letter after reading a description
of a manoeuvring mamma and obedient daughter to secure the prize of the
season, with a peerage and some twenty thousand pounds per annum. It was
true they were the vices and the follies of the age which she ridiculed;
but why should she have ever known them? Ought she to have been
conversant with such a state of society as would expose them? Were it
not better, like Louisa Bellew, to have passed her days amid the simple,
unexciting scenes of secluded life, than to have purchased all the
brilliancy of her wit and the dazzle of her genius at the price of true
womanly delicacy and refinement? While I asked and answered myself these
questions to the satisfaction of my own heart, I could not dismiss the
thought, that amid such scenes as London presented, with such associates
as fashion necessitated, the unprotected simplicity of Miss Bellew's
character would expose her to much both of raillery and coldness; and I
felt that she would be nearly as misplaced among the proud daughters of
haughty England as my fair cousin in the unfashionable freedom of Dublin
life.

I confess, as I read on, that old associations came crowding u