tance of that _Vanity of human wishes_, on
which Juvenal and Johnson have so beautifully expatiated.

"A little delay indeed I shall require, from motives of prudence as well
as fondness. Lucilla will not be nineteen these three months and more.
You will not, I trust, think me unreasonable if I say, that neither her
mother nor myself can consent to part with her before that period."

"Three months!" exclaimed I, with more vehemence than politeness. "Three
months! it is impossible."

"It is very possible," said he, smiling, "that you can wait, and very
certain that we shall not consent sooner."

"Have you any doubts, sir," said I, "have you any objections which I can
remove, and which, being removed, may abridge this long probation?"

"None," said he, kindly. "But I consider even nineteen as a very early
age; too early, indeed, were not my mind so completely at rest about you
on the grand points of religion, morals, and temper, that no delay
could, I trust, afford me additional security. You will, however, my
dear Charles, find so much occupation in preparing your affairs and your
mind for so important a change, that you will not find the time of
absence so irksome as you fancy."

"Absence, sir?" replied I. "What then, do you intend to banish me?"

"No," replied he, smiling again. "But I intend to send you _home_. A
sentence, indeed, which in this dissipated age is thought the worst sort
of exile. You have now been absent six or seven months. This absence has
been hitherto justifiable. It is time to return to your affairs, to your
duties. Both the one and the other always slide into some disorder by a
too long separation from the place of their legitimate exercise. Your
steward will want inspection, your tenants may want redress, your poor
always want assistance."

Seeing me look irresolute, "I must I find," added he, with the kindest
look and voice, "be compelled to the inhospitable necessity of turning
you out of doors."

"Live without Lucilla three months!" said I. "Allow me, sir, at least to
remain a few weeks longer at the Grove?"

"Love is a bad calculator," replied Mr. Stanley, "I believe he never
learned arithmetic. Don't you know that as you are enjoined a three
month's banishment, that the sooner you go, the sooner you will return?
And that however long your stay now is, your three months' absence will
still remain to be accomplished. To speak seriously, Lucilla's sense of
propriety, as well as that