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their existence) from the work designed to ridicule them. Mrs. Barbauld adds:

The style of Mrs. Lennox is easy, but it does not rise to the elegance attained by many, more modern, female writers.

"Henrietta" begins with the incident of two young ladies, who are perfect strangers to each other, meeting in a stage coach, when after a few minutes' conversation one of them exclaims, Let us swear an eternal friendship”—the words taken from the "Anti-Jacobin,” a satire, well known in its time, upon the sentimental German plays of Kotzebue and others. "Henrietta" is agreeably absurd, but not worth preserving.

"Henrietta."

Beginning of "The Female Quixote."

Arabeila's birth.

THE Marquis of

CHAPTER VI.

for a long series of years, was the first and most distinguished favorite at court; he held the most honorable employments under the crown, disposed of all places of profit as he pleased, presided at the council, and, in a manner, governed the whole kingdom. This extensive authority could not fail of making him many enemies; he fell at last a sacrifice to the plots they were continually forming against him; and was not only removed from all his employments, but banished the court forever. The pain his undeserved disgrace gave him he was enabled to conceal by the natural haughtiness of his temper; and, behaving rather like a man who had resigned than been dismissed from his post, he imagined he triumphed sufficiently over the malice of his enemies, while he seemed to be wholly insensible of the effects it produced. His secret discontent, however, was so much augmented by the opportunity he now had of observing the baseness and ingratitude of mankind, which in some degree he experienced every day, that he resolved to quit all society whatever, and devote the rest of his life to solitude and privacy. For the place of his retreat he pitched upon a castle he had in a very remote province of the kingdom, in the neighborhood of a small village, and several miles distant from any town. The vast extent of ground which surrounded this noble building he had caused to be laid out in a manner peculiar to his taste; the most laborious endeavors of art had been used to make it appear like the beautiful product of wild uncultivated nature. But if this epitome of Arcadia could boast of only artless and simple beauties, the inside of the castle was adorned with a magnificence suitable to the dignity and immense riches of the owner.

Here was Arabella born, and, after the early death of her mother, grew up in solitude except for the companionship of the marquis.

Nature had, indeed, given her a most charming face, a shape

easy and delicate, a sweet and insinuating voice, and an air so full of dignity and grace as drew the admiration of all that saw her. These native charms were improved with all the heightenings of art; her dress was perfectly magnificent, the best masters of music and dancing were sent for from London to attend her. She soon became a perfect mistress of the French and Italian languages, under the care of her father; and it is not to be doubted but she would have made a great proficiency in all useful knowledge had not her whole time been taken up by another study.

From her earliest youth she had discovered a fondness for reading, which extremely delighted the marquis; he permitted her, therefore, the use of his library, in which, unfortunately for her, were great store of romances and, what was still more unfortunate, not in the original French, but very bad translations.

romances.

The deceased marchioness had purchased these books to soften a solitude which she found very disagreeable; and after French her death the marquis removed them from her closet into his library, where Arabella found them. The surprising adventures with which they were filled proved a most pleasing entertainment to a young lady who was wholly secluded from the world, who had no other diversion but ranging like a nymph through gardens, or, to say better, the woods and lawns in which she was enclosed; and who had no other conversation but that of a grave and melancholy father, or her own attendants.

turn.

Her ideas, from the manner of her life and the objects around her, had taken a romantic turn; and, supposing Sentimental romances were real pictures of life, from them she drew all her notions and expectations. By them she was taught to believe that love was the ruling principle of the world; that every other passion was subordinate to this; and that it caused all the happiness and miseries of life. Her glass, which she often consulted, always showed her a form so extremely lovely that, not finding herself engaged in such adventures as were common to the heroines in the romances she read, she often complained of the insensibility of mankind, upon whom her charms seemed to have so little influence.

The perfect retirement she lived in afforded, indeed, no opportunities of making the conquests she desired, but she

Arabella at church.

The London admirer.

could not comprehend how any solitude could be obscure enough to conceal a beauty like hers from notice; and thought the reputation of her charms sufficient to bring a crowd of adorers to demand her of her father. Her mind being wholly filled with the most extravagant expectations, she was alarmed by every trifling incident; and kept in a continual anxiety by a vicissitude of hopes and fears.

This chapter contains a description of a lady's dress in fashion not much above two thousand years ago. The beginning of an adventure which seems to promise a great deal.

Arabella had now entered into her seventeenth year, with the regret of seeing herself the object of admiration to a few rustics only, who happened to see her; when, one Sunday, making use of the permission the marquis sometimes allowed her to attend divine service at the church belonging to the village near which they lived, her vanity was flattered with an adorer not altogether unworthy of her notice.

This gentleman was young, gay, handsome, and very elegantly dressed he was just come from London with the intention to pass some weeks with a friend in that part of the country; and at the time Arabella entered the church, his eyes, which had wandered from one rural fair to another, were in an instant fixed upon her face. She blushed with a very becoming modesty; and, pleased with the unusual appearance of so fine a gentleman, and the particular notice he took of her, passed on to her seat through a double row of country people, who, with a profusion of awkward bows and curtsies, expressed their respect. Mr. Hervey, for that was the stranger's name, was no less surprised at her beauty than the singularity of her dress, and the odd whim of being followed into the church by three women attendants, who, as soon as she was seated, took their places behind her. Her dress, though singular, was far from being unbecoming. All the beauties of her neck and shape were set off to the greatest advantage by the fashion of her gown, which, in the manner of a robe, was made to sit tight to her body and fastened on the breast by a knot of diamonds. Her fine black hair hung upon her neck in curls, which had so much the appearance of being artless that all but her maid, whose employment it was to give them that form, imag

ined they were so.

Her head-dress was only a few knots, advantageously disposed, over which she wore a white sarsenet hood, somewhat in the form of a veil, with which she sometimes wholly covered her fair face when she saw herself beheld with too much attention.

This veil had never appeared to her so necessary before. Mr. Hervey's eager glances threw her into so much confusion, that pulling it over her face as much as she was able, she remained invisible to him all the time that they afterward 'stayed in the church. This action, by which she would have had him understand that she was displeased at his gazing on her with so little respect, only increased his curiosity to know who she was. When the congregation was dismissed, he hastened to the door, with an intention to offer her his hand to help her to her coach; but seeing the magnificent equipage that waited for her, and the number of servants that attended it, he conceived a much higher idea of her quality than he had at first; and, changing his design, contented himself with only bowing to her as she passed; and as soon as her coach drove away, inquired of some person nearest him who she was.

Singular
Arabella.

demeanor of

Mr. Hervey, although amazed, was quite inclined to Surprise of Mr. fall seriously in love with the lady.

Arabella in the meantime was wholly taken up with the adventure, as she called it, at church; the person and dress of the gentleman who had so particularly gazed on her there was so different from what she had been accustomed to see that she immediately concluded he was of some distinguished rank. It was past a doubt, she thought, that he was excessively in love with her; and, as she soon expected to have some very extraordinary proofs of his passion, her thoughts were wholly employed on the manner in which she should receive them.

As soon as she came home and had paid her duty to the marquis she hurried to her chamber to be at liberty to indulge her agreeable reflections; and, after the example of our heroines, when anything extraordinary happened to them, called her favorite woman, or, to use her own language, her in whom she confided her most secret thoughts.

Hervey.

“Well, Lucy,” said she, "did you observe that stranger who Conversation with Lucy. ey'd us so heedfully at church to-day?”

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