nferiors, polite to all the world; and I
fancied him possessed of those more active virtues, which I supposed
the smallness of his fortune prevented from appearing. 'Tis with pain I
see that Sir George, with a splendid income, is avaricious, selfish,
proud, vain, and profuse; lavish to every caprice of vanity and
ostentation which regards himself, coldly inattentive to the real
wants of others.

Is this a character to make your Emily happy? We were not formed for
each other: no two minds were ever so different; my happiness is in
friendship, in the tender affections, in the sweets of dear domestic
life; his in the idle parade of affluence, in dress, in equipage, in
all that splendor, which, whilst it excites envy, is too often the mark
of wretchedness.

Shall I say more? Marriage is seldom happy where there is a great
disproportion of fortune. The lover, after he loses that endearing
character in the husband, which in common minds I am afraid is not
long, begins to reflect how many more thousands he might have expected;
and perhaps suspects his mistress of those interested motives in
marrying, of which he now feels his own heart capable. Coldness,
suspicion, and mutual want of esteem and confidence, follow of course.

I will come back with you to Silleri this evening; I have no
happiness but when I am with you. Mrs. Melmoth is so fond of Sir
George, she is eternally persecuting me with his praises; she is
extremely mortified at this delay, and very angry at the manner in
which I behave upon it.

Come to us directly, my dear Bell, and rejoice with your faithful

Emily Montague.

LETTER 31.

To Miss Montague, at Quebec.

I congratulate you, my dear; you will at least have the pleasure of
being five or six months longer your own mistress; which, in my
opinion, when one is not violently in love, is a consideration worth
attending to. You will also have time to see whether you like any body
else better; and you know you can take him if you please at last.

Send him up to his regiment at Montreal with the Melmoths; stay the
winter with me, flirt with somebody else to try the strength of your
passion, and, if it holds out against six months absence, and the
attention of an agreable fellow, I think you may safely venture to
marry him.

_A propos_ to flirting, have you seen Colonel Rivers? He has
not been here these two days. I shall begin to be jealous of this
little impertinent Mademoiselle Claira