I am fretful, Harriet; I won’t be chidden:  I will be comforted by you:  you shall sooth me:  are you not my sister?  She threw her arms round me, and kissed my cheek.

I ventured to rally her, though I was afraid of her retort, and met with it:  but I thought it would divert her.  I am glad, my dear, said I, that you are capable of this tenderness of temper:  you blustering girls—­But fear, I believe, will make cowards loving.

Harriet, said she, and flung from me to the window, remember this:  may I soon see you in the same situation!  I will then have no mercy upon you.

The subject, which Sir Charles led to at breakfast, was the three weddings of Thursday last.  He spoke honourably of marriage, and made some just compliments to Lord and Lady L——­; concluding them with wishes, that his sister Charlotte and Lord G——­ might be neither more nor less happy than they were.  Then turning to Lord W——­, he said, he questioned not his lordship’s happiness with the lady he had so lately seen; for I cannot doubt, said he, of your lordship’s affectionate gratitude to her, if she behaves, as I am sure she will.

My lord had tears in his eyes.  Never man had such a nephew as I have, said he.  All the joy of my present prospects, all the comforts of my future life, are and will be owing to you.

Here had he stopt, it would have been well:  but turning to me, he unexpectedly said, Would to God, madam, that you could reward him!  I cannot; and nobody else can.

All were alarmed for me; every eye was upon me.  A sickishness came over my heart—­I know not how to describe it.  My head sunk upon my bosom.  I could hardly sit; yet was less able to rise.

Sir Charles’s face was overspread with blushes.  He bowed to my lord.  May the man, said he, who shall have the honour to call Miss Byron his, be, if possible, as deserving as she is!  Then will they live together the life of angels.

He gracefully looked down; not at me; and I got a little courage to look up:  yet Lady L——­ was concerned for me:  so was Lord L——­:  Emily’s eye dropt a tear upon her blushing cheek.

Was it not, Lucy, a severe trial?—­Indeed it was.

My Lord, to mend the matter, lamented very pathetically, that Sir Charles was under an obligation to go abroad; and still more, that he could not stay to be present at the celebration of his nuptials with Miss Mansfield.

The Earl, Lord G——­, Lady Gertrude, and the doctor, were to meet the bride and us at church.  Lord and Lady L——­, Sir Charles, and Emily, went in one coach:  Miss Grandison and I in another.

As we went, I don’t like this affair at all, Harriet, said she.  My brother has long made all other men indifferent to me.  Such an infinite difference!

Can any body be happier than Lord and Lady L——­, Charlotte?  Yet Lady L——­ admires her brother as much as you can do.

They happy!—­And so they are.  But Lady L——­, soft soul! fell in love with Lord L——­ before my brother came over.  So the foundation was laid:  and it being a first flame with her, she, in compliment to herself, could not but persevere.  But the sorry creature Anderson, proving a sorry creature, made me despise the sex:  and my brother’s perfections contributed to my contempt of all other men.