poured in upon her, as it were, fpontaneously.— A chofen fociety, formed by her own inclination, fhewed her the moft flattering attentions, and nothing that could render home agreeable was ever wanting.

'My wife was too young to confider it neceffary to regulate and reduce my expences. Ah! had fhe known how much I rifked to please her, with what refolution would fhe not have oppofed it? But as fhe brought me a handsome fortune, it was natural for her to conclude, that on my fide I was in good circumftances. She imagined at least that my fituation in life allowed me to put my house upon a genteel footing. She perceived nothing in it that was unfuitable to my profeffion; and on confulting her female friends, all this was highly proper-all this was no more than decent. Alas! I faid fo too, and Adrienne alone, with her modeft and fweet ingenuous manners, afked me if I conceived it neceffary to incur fuch expences to render myself amiable in her eyes. "I cannot be infenfible," said fhe, "to the pains you take to render me happy; but I fhould be fo without all that. You love me, and that is enough to excite the envy of thefe young women. What fatisfaction can you find in increafing it by your wishing me to eclipse them? Leave them their advan

tages,

tages, which I fhall not envy. Let the frivolity of taste, let whim and vain fuperfluity, be their love. Love and happiness fhall be mine."

Her delicacy, though it gave her new charms, did not alter my conduct, and I answered, that it was on my account that I complied with cuftom; that what appeared as luxury to her, was nothing but a little more elegance than ordinary; that good tafte was never expenfive, and that whatever I might do, I fhould never tranfgrefs the bounds of propriety. I deceived her. I deceived myself, or rather I banished all reflection. I was aware of living beyond my prefent income, but in a fhort time the produce of my labours would make good the deficiency, and in the mean while my wife would have had her enjoyments. Every one approved of my affectionate care to make her happy. Could I do lefs for her? Could I even do enough? This was the public voice. At least it was the fentiments and language of our friends. My father-in-law looked with concern upon thofe anticipated expences, upon this emulation of luxury, which ruins, faid he, the greatcft fortunes. He teftified to me his disapprobation of it with fome degree of feverity. I.calmly rephed, that this emulation fhould never lead me into any indiferction, and he might fafely depend

upen

upon my prudence. I have fince learnt what an impreffion this manner of refpe&tfully eluding his advice, made upon his mind, and what bitter refentment he nourished at the bottom of his heart.

The moment of my becoming a father drew nigh, and this moment, which I looked for with an impatient delight, my heart had hitherto been a ftranger to; this day, which promised to be the happiest I had ever yet experienced, turned out the most fatal. It deprived me both of the mother and the child. This ftroke plunged me into an abyfs of forrow. I will not tell you how heart-breaking it was; it was that kind of grief that can only be expreffed by the cries it utters. None but those who experience fuch forrows can imagine what they are.

It was ftill in the height of my affliction, when my wife's father informed me by his notary, accompanied with a few words of forrow and condolence, that the writings were drawn up to transfer back into his hands the fortune I had received from him. Full of indignation at his haste, I replied that I was quite prepared; and on the morrow the fortune was returned. But the jewels that I had given his daughter, and the other ar

ticles of value for her own particular use, became alfo his fpoils. He had a legal right to them. I represented the inhumanity of requiring me, at the end of eighteen months marriage, to fubmit to fo fevere a law; but he availed himself of his right with all the impatience and avidity of a greedy claimant. I fubmitted, and this fevere exaction made fome noife in the world. Then did the envy my happinefs had excited, haften to punish me for my fhort-lived felicity, and under the difguife of pity, took care to divulge my ruin, which it feemed to deplore. My friends were lefs zealous to ferve me, than were my enemies to do me injury. They agreed that I had been too much in hafte to live away. They were very right, but they were fo too late. It was at my entertainments that they should have made fuch obfervations. But you, Sir, who know the world, know with what indulgence spendthrifts are treated until the period of their ruin. Mine was now made public, and my creditors being alarmed, came in crouds to my houfe. I was determined not to deceive them, and making them acquainted with my fituation, I offered them all that I had left, and only required them to give me time to difcharge the reft. Some were accommodating, but others, alledging the wealthy circumftances of my fatherin-law, obferved, that he was the perfon who

ought

ought to have given me indulgence, and that in feizing the spoils of his daughter, it was their property he had plundered. In a word, I was reduced to the neceffity of efcaping from their purfuits by blowing out my brains, or of being shut up in a prifon.

'Twas this, Sir, this night, which I paffed in the agonies of fhame and despair, with death on one hand, and ruin on the other. This is what ought to serve as an eternal lesson and example. An honeft and inoffenfive man, whofe only crime was his dependance upon flight hopes; this man hitherto esteemed and honoured, in an eafy and fure way to fortune, all on a fudden marked with infamy, configned to contempt, condemned either to cease to live, or to live in difgrace, in exile, or in prifon; discountenanced by his father-in-law, abandoned by his friends, no longer daring to appear abroad, no longer daring to name himself, and defirous of finding fome folitary and inacceffible retreat that could conceal him from purfuit. It was in the midst of these horrible reflections, that I paffed the longeft of nights. Ah! the remembrance of it ftill makes me fhudder! and neither my head nor my heart have yet recovered the fhock I felt at this dreadful reverfe of fortune. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that during these

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