w character
assumed. Thinking Charles to be a fine man of the town, the modish
racket, which indeed is their natural state, was played off, but it did
not answer. As they probably, by this time, suspect your character to be
somewhat between the Strephon and the Hermit, we shall now, in return,
see something between the wood-nymph and the nun, and I shall not wonder
if the extravagantly modish Miss Bell

"Is now Pastora by a fountain's side."

Though I would not attribute the change to the cause assigned by Sir
John, yet I confess we found, when we made our visit, no small
revolution in Miss Bell Flam. The part of the Arcadian nymph, the
reading lady, the lover of retirement, the sentimental admirer of
domestic life, the censurer of thoughtless dissipation, was each acted
in succession, but so skillfully touched that the shades of each melted
in the other without any of those violent transitions which a less
experienced actress would have exhibited: Sir John slyly, yet with
affected gravity, assisting her to sustain this newly adapted character,
which, however, he was sure would last no longer than the visit.

When we returned home, we met the Miss Stanleys in the garden and joined
them. "Don't you admire," said Sir John, "the versatility of Miss Bell's
genius? You, Charles, are not the first man on whom an assumed fondness
for rural delights has been practiced. A friend of mine was drawn in to
marry, rather suddenly, a thorough-paced town-bred lady, by her repeated
declarations of her passionate fondness for the country, and the rapture
she expressed when rural scenery was the subject. All she knew of the
country was, that she had now and then been on a party of pleasure at
Richmond, in the fine summer months; a great dinner at the Star and
Garter, gay company, a bright day, lovely scenery, a dance on the green,
a partner to her taste, French horns on the water, altogether
constituted a feeling of pleasure from which she had really persuaded
herself that she was fond of the country. But when all these
concomitants were withdrawn, when she had lost the gay partner, the
dance, the horns, the flattery, and the frolic, and nothing was left but
her books, her own dull mansion, her domestic employments, and the sober
society of her husband, the pastoral vision vanished. She discovered, or
rather _he_ discovered, but too late, that the country had not only no
charms for her, but that it was a scene of constant ennui and