infortunate to be avaricious."—"Avaricious! he is not ," replied the Dutchman: "he is not solicitous for riches. Never, I am well assured, did he desire the wealth of another; he is only careful of his own. But in the management of it he exhibits such an ingenuous and refined frugality, that the Dutch themselves are astonished at it. But what most surprises me, is, the secrecy with which he conccals, even from me, the use he makes of his money."

Before my departure, I became better acquainted with this uncommon and virtuous young man.

My dear countryman," said I, the day I was taking my leave of him, “I am going back to Paris. Shall I be so unfortunate as to be of no service to you there? I have given you the pleasure of obliging me as much and as often as you pleased; do not refusé me an opportunity of returning the obligation."" No sir," said he "you shall have it and in exchange for the little services which you are pleased to over rate, I will come this evening, and request one from you; which is of the most material consequence I must observe, that it is a seeret which I am going to communicate to you; but I can be under no appre hensions on that account. Your name alone is a sufficient guarantee." I promised to keep it faithfully; and that very evening he called upon me, with a casket full of gold in his hand.

to me.

"Here," said he, " are five hundred louis d'ors, arising from three years' savings, and à paper signed by my hand that will indicate the use to which I wish them to be puť. It was signed OLIVER SALVARY. How great was my surprise to find it was destined for nothing but objects of luxury! A thousand crowns to a jeweller; a thousand to a cabinet-maker ; a hundred louis for millinery; as much for laces; and the rest to a perfumer.

"I surprise you," said he; "Yet you do not see all I have already paid, thank heaven, three hundred louis for the like fooleries; and I have much yet to pay before every thing will be discharged. Must I tell it you, Sir? Alas! I am a disgraced man in my own country, and I am labouring here to wipe away a stain I have brought upon my name. In the mean while, I may die; and die insolvent. I wish to make you a witness of my good intentions, and the efforts I am making to repair my misfor tunes and my shame. What I am going to relate to you may be considered as my testament, which I request you to receive, that, in case of my death, you may take the necessary pains to restore my character.” "You will live long enough," said I, "you will have time to efface the remembrance of the misfortunes of your youth. But, if, in order to make you easy, you want nothing but a faithful witness of your sentiments and conduct, I am better informed on that subject than you imagine, and you may with all confidence lay open your heart to me."

"I begin then," said he, smiling, "by confessing, that my misfortunes are entirely owing to myself, and that my errors are without excuse. My profession was one of those that required the strictest probity; and the first law of that probity is, to dispose of nothing that is not our own. I made calculations; but those calculations were erronebus. My imprudence was not the less criminal. But I will tell you how I was involved in it.

"A reputable family, an unsullied reputation, the esteem of the public, transmitted from my ancestors to their children; my youth; some success in which I had been much favoured by circumstances; all seemed to promise that I should make a rapid fortune by my profession. This was very rock on which I split.

the

Mons.

“Mons. D'AMENE, a man of fortune, and who considered my prospects as infallible, ventured to build his daughter's happiness upon these delusive hopes. He offered me her hand; and as soon as we were acquainted, we formed a mutual attachment. She is no more: Were she still living and I were again to choose a wife, she alone should be the object of my choice. Yes, my dearest ADRIENNE, I would choose thee from among a thousand. Others might have more beauty: but who can ever equal thy worth, thy tenderness, thy charming temper, thy good sense, and thy amiable candour?”

In this address, his eyes, raised to heaven, as if looking for her spirit, were suffused with tears. Impute not," he continued," impute not to her any thing that I have done. The innocent cause of my misfortune, she never even suspected it. And in the midst of the illusions with which she was surrounded, she was far from perceiving the abyss to which I was leading her over a path strewed with flowers. Enamoured of her before I married her, more enamoured after possession, I thought I could never do enough to make her happy; and compared to my ardent love for her, her timid tenderness, and her sensibility, which were tempered by modesty, had an appearance of coldness. To make myself beloved as much as I loved her -Shall I declare it? I wanted to intoxicate her with happiness.What passion ought not a man to indulge with distrust, if it be dangerous to devote himself too much to the desire of pleasing his wife.

"An elegant house, expensive furniture, whatever fashion and taste could procure in the article of dress, to flatter in young minds the propensities of self-love, by affording new splendour or new attractions to beauty; all this anticipated my wife's desires, and poured in upon her, as it were, spontaneously. A. select society, formed by her own inclination

FF. 3.

panied with a few words of slight condolence, that the writings were drawn up to transfer back into his hands the fortune I had received from him. Indignant at this indecent precipitation, I answered, that I was quite prepared; and the next day the fortune was returned. But the jewels that I had given his daughter, and the other articles of value for her own particular use, became also his property. He had a legal right to them. I represented the inhumanity of requiring me, after eighteen months marriage, to submit to so severe a law; but he insisted upon his right with all the impatience of a greedy claimant. I submitted; and this severe exaction made some noise in the world. Then did the envy my happiness had excited, hasten to punish me for my short-lived felicity, and, under the disguise of pity, took great care to divulge my ruin, which it seemed to deplore. My friends were less zealous to serve, than were my enemies to injure me. They agreed that I had been too much in haste to live away. They were very right, but they were so too late. It was at my entertainments that they should have made such observations. But you, Sir, who know the world, know, with what indulgence spendthrifts are treated until the period of their ruin. Mine was now made public, and my creditors, being alarmed, came in crowds to my house. I was determined not to deceive them; and making them acquainted with my situation, I offered them all that I had left, and only required them to give me time to discharge the rest. Some were accommodating, but others, alledging the wealthy circumstances of my father-in-law, observed, that he was the person who ought to have given me indulgence, and that in seizing the spoils of his daughter, it was their property he had plundered. In a word,

*

I

By the laws of France, on the death of the mother and issue, her fortune reverts back to her family.