declaring himself averse in matrimony as in morals to a community of goods."
The announcement of the Earl's matrimonial design and the circulation of this anecdote, set all the clergymen's daughters in England on a blaze of expectation; and when Mauleverer came to shire, upon obtaining the honour of the Lieutenancy, to visit his estates and court the friendship of his neighbours, there was not an old young lady of forty, who worked in broad-stitch and had never been to London above a week at a time, who did not deem herself exactly the sort of person sure to fascinate his Lordship.
It was late in the afternoon when the travelling chariot of this distinguished person, preceded by two outriders in the Earl's undress livery of dark green, stopped at the hall door of Warlock House. The Squire was at home actually and metaphorically, for he never dreamt of denying himself to any one, gentle or simple. The door of the carriage being opened, there descended a small slight man, richly dressed, (for lace and silk vestments were not then quite discarded, though gradually growing less the mode,) and of an air preposessing, and dis-
