what he meant
further I cannot divine.

Mr. Jenkings reply'd, You are mistaken, Sir, if you think me the father
of this Lady.--The chaise driving up that moment to the door, he shook
him by the hand, and led me towards it; the Captain assisting me in
getting in.

I wish I could have satisfied my curiosity.--I wish I had known to whom
he likened me.--Perhaps his eyes misinformed him--perhaps he might have
taken a cheerful glass after the last night's encounter:--yet he
resembled not a votary of Bacchus;--his complexion clear;--hair nicely
comb'd;--coat without a spot;--linen extremely fine and clean.--But
enough of him.--Here comes the Dean, walking up the avenue escorting a
party of my old acquaintances.

Adieu! dearest honour'd Lady, till my return to Hampshire.

F. WARLEY.

LETTER XIV.

The Honourable GEORGE MOLESWORTH to LORD DARCEY.

London.

_Was every any thing so forgetful, to bring no other clothes here but
mourning?_

Really, my Lord, this favours a good deal of the matrimonial stile. Was
you, commenced Benedict, I should think you had received lessons from
the famous L----, who takes such pains with his pupils, that those whose
attendance is frequent, can, in, the space of three months after the
knot is tied, bring their wives to hear patiently the
words--_forgetful,--ridiculous,--absurd,--pish--poh_,--and a thousand
more of the same significant meaning.--I hear you, my Lord:--_it is
true_, I am in jest; and know you would scorn to say even a peevish
thing to a wife.

Why fret yourself to a skeleton about an absence of eight days?--How
could you suppose she would let you go into Oxfordshire?--Proper
decorums must be observed by that sex.--Are not those despicable who
neglect them?--What would you have said, had she taken Edmund with
her?--Don't storm:--on reflection you will find you had no greater right
to expect that indulgence.

I have this morning had a letter from Dick Risby, that unfortunate, but
worthy cousin of _mine_, just returned from the West-Indies to take on
him the command of a company in Lord ----'s regiment. What a Father
his!--to abandon _such_ a son.--Leave him to the wide world at
sixteen,--without a shilling, only to gratify the pride and avarice of
his serpent daughter,--who had art sufficient to get this noble youth
disinherited for her waddling brat, whose head was form'd large enough
to contain his mother's mischief and his own.--In vain we attempted to
set asi