ought that it
would be wise to secure him for her niece before he should make his
appearance in the London world, where mothers and daughters would
soon make him feel his own consequence. Mr. Berryl, as Lord Colambre's
intimate friend, was admitted to the private evening parties at Lady
Clonbrony's, and he contributed to render them still more agreeable.
His information, his habits of thinking, and his views, were all totally
different from Mr. Salisbury's; and their collision continually struck
out that sparkling novelty which pleases peculiarly in conversation. Mr.
Berryl's education, disposition, and tastes, fitted him exactly for
the station which he was destined to fill in society--that of a COUNTRY
GENTLEMAN; not meaning by that expression a mere eating, drinking,
hunting, shooting, ignorant country squire of the old race, which is
now nearly extinct; but a cultivated, enlightened, independent English
country gentleman--the happiest, perhaps, of human beings. On the
comparative felicity of the town and country life; on the dignity,
utility, elegance, and interesting nature of their different
occupations, and general scheme of passing their time, Mr. Berryl and
Mr. Salisbury had one evening a playful, entertaining, and, perhaps,
instructive conversation; each party, at the end, remaining, as
frequently happens, of their own opinion. It was observed that Miss
Broadhurst ably and warmly defended Mr. Berryl's side of the question;
and in their views, plans, and estimates of life, there appeared a
remarkable, and as Lord Colambre thought, a happy coincidence. When she
was at last called upon to give her decisive judgment between a town and
a country life, she declared that 'if she were condemned to the extremes
of either, she should prefer a country life, as much as she should
prefer Robinson Crusoe's diary to the journal of the idle man in the
SPECTATOR.'

'Lord bless me! Mrs. Broadhurst, do you hear what your daughter is
saying?' cried Lady Clonbrony, who, from the card-table, lent an
attentive ear to all that was going forward. 'Is it possible that Miss
Broadhurst, with her fortune, and pretensions, and sense, can really be
serious in saying she would be content to live in the country?'

'What's that you say, child, about living in the country?' said Mrs.
Broadhurst.

Miss Broadhurst repeated what she had said.

'Girls always think so who have lived in town,' said Mrs. Broadhurst.
'They are always dreaming of s