th ever having discredited a tea-party by my silence, yet I take care
never to report any thing of my acquaintance, especially if it is to
their credit,--_discredit_, I mean,--until I have searched to the bottom
of it. It is true, there is infinite pleasure in this charitable
pursuit. Oh! how delicious to go and condole with the friends of some
backsliding sister, or to retire with some old dowager or maiden aunt of
the family, who love scandal so well that they cannot forbear gratifying
their appetite at the expence of the reputation of their nearest
relations! And then to return full fraught with a rich collection of
circumstances, to retail to the next circle of our acquaintance under
the strongest injunctions of secrecy,--ha, ha, ha!--interlarding the
melancholy tale with so many doleful shakes of the head, and more
doleful "Ah! who would have thought it! so amiable, so prudent a young
lady, as we all thought her, what a monstrous pity! well, I have nothing
to charge myself with; I acted the part of a friend, I warned her of the
principles of that rake, I told her what would be the consequence; I
told her so, I told her so."--Ha, ha, ha!

LETITIA. Ha, ha, ha! Well, but, Charlotte, you don't tell me what you
think of Miss Bloomsbury's match.

CHARLOTTE. Think! why I think it is probable she cried for a plaything,
and they have given her a husband. Well, well, well, the puling chit
shall not be deprived of her plaything: 'tis only exchanging London
dolls for American babies.--Apropos, of babies, have you heard what Mrs.
Affable's high-flying notions of delicacy have come to?

LETITIA. Who, she that was Miss Lovely?

CHARLOTTE. The same; she married Bob Affable of Schenectady. Don't you
remember?

_Enter SERVANT._

SERVANT. Madam, the carriage is ready.

LETITIA. Shall we go to the stores first, or visiting?

CHARLOTTE. I should think it rather too early to visit, especially Mrs.
Prim; you know she is so particular.

LETITIA. Well, but what of Mrs. Affable?

CHARLOTTE. Oh, I'll tell you as we go; come, come, let us hasten. I hear
Mrs. Catgut has some of the prettiest caps arrived you ever saw. I shall
die if I have not the first sight of them.

[_Exeunt._

SCENE II. _A Room in VAN ROUGH'S House._

MARIA [_sitting disconsolate at a table, with books, &c._].

SONG.[5]

I.

The sun sets in night, and the stars shun the day;
But