to him before I slept.

I thought so! She laughed--And Lord L---- took it! Did he?

To be sure he did. I should otherwise have been displeased with him.

Dear, good soul!--And so you gave him a thousand pounds to take part of
it back from him, by four or five paltry guineas at a time, at his
pleasure?

Lord L---- and I, Charlotte, have but one purse. You may not perhaps,
know how we manage it?

Pray, good, meek, dependent creature! how do you manage it?

Thus, Charlotte: My lord knows that his wife and he have but one
interest; and from the first of our happy marriage, he would make me take
one key, as he has another, of the private drawer, where his money and
money-bills lie. There is a little memorandum-book in the drawer, in
which he enters on one page, the money he receives; on the opposite, the
money he takes out: and when I want money, I have recourse to my key. If
I see but little in the drawer, I am the more moderate; or, perhaps, if
my want is not urgent, defer the supplying of it till my lord is richer:
but, little or much, I minute down the sum, as he himself does; and so we
know what we are about; and I never put it out of my lord's power, by my
unseasonable expenses, to preserve that custom of his, for which he is as
much respected, as well served; not to suffer a demand to be twice made
upon him where he is a debtor.

Good soul!--And, pray, don't you minute down, too, the use to which you
put the money you take out?

Indeed I often do: always, indeed, when I take out more than five guineas
at one time: I found my lord did so: and I followed the example of my own
accord.

Happy pair! said I.--O Lady G----, what a charming example is this!--I
hope you'll follow it.

Thank you, Harriet, for your advice. Why, I can't but say, that this is
one pretty way of coaxing each other into frugality: but don't you think,
that where an honest pair are so tender of disobliging, and so studious
of obliging each other, that they seem to confess that the matrimonial
good understanding hangs by very slender threads?

And do not the tenderest friendships, said I, hang by as slender? Can
delicate minds be united to each other but by delicate observances?

Why thou art a good soul, too, Harriet!--And so you would both have me
make a present to Lord G---- of my thousand pounds before we have chosen
our private drawer; before he has got two keys made to it?

Let him know, Charlotte, what Lord L---- and I do, if you