siasm, that he paid but
little attention to us, which made me the more sensible of the want we
suffered from the absence of Captain Sabre. In a word, my dear Bell,
never did I pass a more unsatisfactory day, and I wish it blotted for
ever from my remembrance. Let it therefore be consigned to the abysses
of oblivion, while I recall the more pleasing incidents that have
happened since I wrote you last.

On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the
Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most splendid,
and on the most easy footing. I shall not attempt to describe the
consumable materials of the table, but call your attention, my dear
friend, to the intellectual portion of the entertainment, a subject much
more congenial to your delicate and refined character.

Mrs. Argent is a lady of considerable personal magnitude, of an open and
affable disposition. In this respect, indeed, she bears a striking
resemblance to her nephew, Captain Sabre, with whose relationship to her
we were unacquainted before that day. She received us as friends in whom
she felt a peculiar interest; for when she heard that my mother had got
her dress and mine from Cranbury Alley, she expressed the greatest
astonishment, and told us, that it was not at all a place where persons
of fashion could expect to be properly served. Nor can I disguise the
fact, that the flounced and gorgeous garniture of our dresses was in
shocking contrast to the amiable simplicity of hers and the fair
Arabella, her daughter, a charming girl, who, notwithstanding the
fashionable splendour in which she has been educated, displays a
delightful sprightliness of manner, that, I have some notion, has not
been altogether lost on the heart of my brother.

When we returned upstairs to the drawing-room, after dinner, Miss
Arabella took her harp, and was on the point of favouring us with a
Mozart; but her mother, recollecting that we were Presbyterians, thought
it might not be agreeable, and she desisted, which I was sinful enough to
regret; but my mother was so evidently alarmed at the idea of playing on
the harp on a Sunday night, that I suppressed my own wishes, in filial
veneration for those of that respected parent. Indeed, fortunate it was
that the music was not performed; for, when we returned home, my father
remarked with great solemnity, that such a way of passing the Lord's
night as we had passed it, would have been a great sin