I have been accounting to Mr. Jenkings for not coming home last night.  Good man! every mark of favour I receive, enlightens his countenance.—­The reasons I have given him, I shall now proceed to give your Ladyship.

I said we were walking;—­I have said the conversation was interesting;—­but I have not said it was interrupted by Sir James and Mr. Watson, who join’d us just as Lord Darcey had quitted the hand of Lady Powis.—­A visit was propos’d to the Dairy-house, which is about a mile from the Abbey.—­In our way thither, I was full of curiosity, full of inquiries about the neighbourhood, and whose seats such and such were, that enrich’d adjacent hills?—­The neighbourhood, reply’d her Ladyship, is in general polite and hospitable.—­Yes, said Sir James, and more smart young men, Miss Warley, than are to be met with in every county.—­Yonder, continued he, live Mr. and Mrs. Finch,—­very rich,—­very prudent, and very worthy;—­they have one son, a discreet lad, who seems to promise he will inherit their good qualities.

That which you see so surrounded with woods, is Sir Thomas Slater’s, a batchelor of fifty-five; and, let me tell you, fair Lady, the pursuit of every girl in the neighbourhood;—­his estate a clear nine thousand a-year, and—­Hold, hold, interrupted Lord Darcey, in compassion to us young fellows, say no more of this redoubtable batchelor.

Well then, continued Sir James, since my Lord will have it so,—­let me draw your eye, Miss Warley, from Sir Thomas Slater’s, and fix it on Lord Allen’s:  Observe the situation!—­Nothing can be more beautiful, the mind of its owner excepted.

That house on the left is Mr. Winter’s.—­Chance!—­Strange chance!—­has just put him in possession of an immense fortune, with which he is going to purchase a coronet for his daughter.—­The fellow does not know what to do with his money, and has at last found an ape of quality, that will take it off his hands.

In this manner was Sir James characterising his neighbours, when a sudden and violent storm descended.—­Half a mile from the Dairy-house, the rain fell in such torrents, that we were wet through, before a friendly oak offer’d us its shelter.—­Never shall I forget my own or Lord Darcey’s figure:  he stripp’d himself of his coat, and would have thrown it over Lady Powis.  Her Ladyship absolutely refusing it, her cloak being thick, mine the reverse, he forc’d it upon me.  Sir James a assisting to put my arms into the sleeves.—­Nor was I yet enough of the amazon:—­they even compell’d me to exchange my hat for his, lapping it, about my ears.—­What a strange metamorphose!—­I cannot think of it without laughing!—­To complete the scene, no exchange could be made, till we reach’d the Abbey.—­In this droll situation, we waited for the coach; and getting, in, streaming from head to toe, it more resembled a bathing machine, than any other vehicle.