I have known more men than one, who could not live upon fifteen hundred a year, bring themselves to be contented with fifty. But Mr. Grandison is so fallen in spirit, that he never will be able to survive such a change of fortune, if I do not befriend him. Poor man! he is but the shadow of what he was. The first formerly in the fashion: in body and face so erect; his steps so firm, gait so assured, air so gen-teel, eye so lively But now, in so few months, gaunt sides; his half-worn tarnished-lacedcoat, big enough to wrap over him; hollow cheeks, puling voice, sighing heart, creeping feet O my Dr. Bartlett, how much does it behove men so little able to bear distress, to avoid falling into it by their own extravagance! But for a man to fall into indigence through avarice, (for what is a spirit of gaming, but a spirit of avarice, and that of the worst sort?) How can such a one support his own reflections?

I had supposed, that he had no reason, in this shattered state of his affairs, to apprehend any-thing from the prosecution set on foot by the woman who claimed him on promise of marriage; but I was mis-taken; she has, or pretends to have, he told me, wit — nesses of the promise. Poor shameful man! What witnesses needed she, if he knows he made it, and re-ceived the profligate consideration?

I am not happy, my dear friend, in my mind. I hope to be tolerably so, if my next letters from Bo-logna are favourable, as to the state of health of the beloved brother and sister there.

It would have been no disagreeable amusement to me, a*, this time, to have proceeded directly to Ire-land; the rather, as I hope a visit to my estate there is become almost necessary, by the forwardness the works are in which I set on foot when I was on that more than agreeable spot. But the unhappy situation of Mr. Grandison’s affairs, and my hopes of bringing those of Lady Mansfield to an issue, toge-ther with the impatience I have to see my English friends, determine me to the contrary. To-morrow will be the last day of my stay in this city; and the

V’”>L. xiii. 2 c day after, my cousin and I shall set out for Calais Very quickly, therefore, after the receipt of this letter, which shuts up the account of my foreign excursions, will you, by your paternal goodness, if in London, help to calm the disturbed heart of your CHARLES GRANDISON.

Letter XLIII.

Lady G. to Miss Byron.

London, Tuesday, September 5. Congratulate us, my dearest Miss Byron, on the arrival of my brother. He came last night. It was late. And he sent to us this morning; and to others of his friends. My lord and I hurried away to breakfast with him. Ah, my dear! we see too plainly that he has been very much disturbed in mind. He looks more wan, and is thinner, than he was: but he is the same kind brother, friend, and good man.