secure of never finding a
rival in Ethelinde, continued to call her friend. She began, however, by
degrees to suspect that she had been a little mistaken in this
satisfactory point. It is true that whenever she appeared in public she
was immediately surrounded by all the gentlemen in the room, but she
could not avoid observing, that when Ethelinde was there also, many of
them would turn to her, and when once engaged in conversation with her,
never again quit her side, for that of her friend. This was sufficient
ground for her conceiving a rooted dislike to the unassuming and
unsuspicious Ethelinde.

An important addition was now made to the society into which Adrian and
Amaranthe had been introduced, by the arrival of a young gentleman
lately returned from travelling, to take possession of a large estate,
and noble mansion annexed to it, in that country. Lionel had every thing
that could recommend him to the favour of all to whom he was made known.
Handsome and elegant in his person, his mind was stored with
information, his taste refined, his conversation instructive and
entertaining, and his manners affable and polished. Every father openly
courted him as a companion and example to his son, and every mother
secretly wished him to become the husband of her daughter.

Lionel was charmed with the brother and sister on his first
introduction to them. He liked the frank cordiality of Adrian, and
became the professed slave of Amaranthe's beauty. It required no length
of time for penetration like Lionel's to discover his error in regard to
Adrian; he found he had mistaken vivacity for genius, and frankness of
manner for generosity of heart, when in fact his favourite proved
unformed and untaught, indifferent to the opinion of all whom he ought
to have valued, and given up to idleness and self-indulgence. Such a
companion was quitted without any effort of resolution, but the sister's
power over him did not yield so easily. Amaranthe's vanity had been too
much flattered by such a conquest, for her to endeavour to conceal the
satisfaction it afforded her, and the enamoured Lionel was willing to
attribute the approbation she evinced, to genuine affection. He
confessed himself disappointed in her mental qualities, but he laid all
that to the want of education, and the blame upon those who brought her
up. He delighted in the thought of instructing and cultivating her mind
himself, and dwelt with rapture on the prospect of posses