ore
calculated to raise the blush of indignant modesty than to stimulate the
natural feelings of affection of a daughter towards a parent. Their
mother, whose income was not sufficient to meet the demands of a
worthless husband, in addition to the necessary expenses attendant on
three grown-up women, was unceasing in her attempts to get them off her
hands: but we will introduce a conversation which took place between her
and a sedate-looking, powdered old gentleman, who had long been
considered as a "friend of the family," as thereby more light will
perhaps be thrown upon her character.

"The fact is, my dear Mr Heaviside, that I hardly know what to do. Mr
Revel, who is very intimate with the theatre people, proposed that they
should try their fortune on the stage. He says (and indeed there is
some truth in it) that, now-a-days, the best plan for a man to make
himself popular, is to be sent to Newgate, and the best chance that a
girl has of a coronet, is to become an actress. Well, I did not much
like the idea; but at last I consented. Isabel, my youngest, is, you
know, very handsome in her person, and sings remarkably well, and we
arranged that she should go on first; and if she succeeded, that her
sister Charlotte should follow her; but Isabel is of a very obstinate
disposition, and when we proposed it to her, she peremptorily refused,
and declared that she would go out as governess, or any thing rather
than consent. I tried what coaxing would do, and her father tried
threatening; but all was in vain. This was about a year ago, and she is
now only seventeen; but she ever was a most decided, a most obstinate
character."

"Very undutiful, indeed, ma'am; she might have been a duchess before
this:--a very foolish girl, indeed, ma'am," observed the gentleman.

"Well, Mr Heaviside, we then thought that Charlotte, our eldest, had
the next best chance of success. Although not by any means so
good-looking as her sister; indeed, to tell you the truth, Mr
Heaviside, which I would not do to every body,--but I know that you can
keep a secret, Charlotte is now nearly thirty years old, and her sister
Laura only one year younger."

"Is it possible, madam!" replied Mr Heaviside, looking at the lady with
well feigned astonishment.

"Yes, indeed," replied the lady, who had forgotten that in telling her
daughters' secrets, she had let out her own; "but I was married so
young, so very young, that I am almost ashamed to think