nd, once or twice, he caught himself
conjecturing whether it were possible, that one as practised, as
sensible, and as much accustomed to the beauties of the court, as
Bluewater, had actually been caught, by the pretty face of a country
girl, when so well turned of fifty, himself! Then discarding the notion
as preposterous, he gave his attention to the discourse of Sir Wycherly;
a dissertation on rabbits, and rabbit-warrens. In this manner the dinner
passed away.

Mrs. Dutton asked her host's permission to retire, with her daughter, at
the earliest moment permitted by propriety. In quitting the room she
cast an anxious glance at the face of her husband, which was already
becoming flushed with his frequent applications of port; and spite of an
effort to look smiling and cheerful, her lips quivered, and by the time
she and Mildred reached the drawing-room, tears were fast falling down
her cheeks. No explanation was asked, or needed, by the daughter, who
threw herself into her mother's arms, and for several minutes they wept
together, in silence. Never had Mrs. Dutton spoken, even to Mildred, of
the besetting and degrading vice of her husband; but it had been
impossible to conceal its painful consequences from the world; much less
from one who lived in the bosom of her family. On that failing which the
wife treated so tenderly, the daughter of course could not touch; but
the silent communion of tears had got to be so sweet to both, that,
within the last year, it was of very frequent occurrence.

"Really, Mildred," said the mother, at length, after having succeeded in
suppressing her emotion, and in drying her eyes, while she smiled fondly
in the face of the lovely and affectionate girl; "this Admiral Bluewater
is getting to be so particular, I hardly know how to treat the matter."

"Oh! mother, he is a delightful old gentleman! and he is so gentle,
while he is so frank, that he wins your confidence almost before you
know it. I wonder if he could have been serious in what he said about
the noble daring and noble deserving of Prince Edward!"

"That must pass for trifling, of course; the ministry would scarcely
employ any but a true whig, in command of a fleet. I saw several of his
family, when a girl, and have always heard them spoken of with esteem
and respect. Lord Bluewater, this gentleman's cousin, was very intimate
with the present Lord Wilmeter, and was often at the castle. I remember
to have heard that he had a dis