lized; especially when, on hearing that the city near which he lived was at the next general election to be represented by two thick and thin men, that is, men who go all lengths with the minister, whoever he may be, Clermont thought it his duty to oppose them, and to offer himself, in want of a better candidate, to receive the independent votes.

"But, my dear Clermont, consider the expense of a contested election !"

"I cannot, Augusta, and ought not to consider my own petty interests when those of my country are at stake.”

"Are the interests of your wife and children petty interests, Clermont?-However, I respect your motives, and will say no more.

In two years more the parliament was dissolved, Clermont was declared a candidate for and his canvass was a promising one; but he was mortified to find that in proportion as his hopes increased, his wife's spirits fell; and, when he reproached her with this perverseness, she replied, faintly smiling, "My dear Charles, 1 shall find it an awful thing to make great dinners in London for cabinet ministers, or opposition leaders."

"What do you mean?" asked Clermont.

"If you gain your election, we must have a house in London."

"Well-and what then?"

Why then you will never be happy unless you invite your brother members frequently to dinner; and then, out of affection, you will invite the members of one party one day, and out of candour those of the other another day: then, I suppose, I must give a ball to their wives every year; and what with the expenses of getting into parliament; and expenses when in it-".

"Well-and what then?"

"Why then, adieu to domestic comfort, and younger children's fortunes!"

"You see things, Augusta, in too serious a light," replied Clermont, vexed, but not convinced, and hastening to a meeting of his friends.

The day of election arrived-Augusta, with her little boy and two little girls, appeared on the scene of action; and a most painful day indeed it was to her. It grieved her to wish against her husband's wishes; it wounded her tenderness to desire him to feel the pangs of disappointment and mortification;-still, aware of the expenses and

temptations to extravagances to which success would expose her husband, she shuddered at every shout of triumph, and felt herself turn pale when informed that Clermont was two hundred a head.

At four o'clock on the election day, Clermont followed a large party of his friends, who came to congratulate Augusta on the certainty of her husband's being returned. Augusta endeavoured to smile, but could not, and she burst into tears; while the gentlemen attributed her emotion to joyful surprise: but a meaning glance, which Augusta gave Clermont, convinced him that her tears were not those of joy, and he looked excessively foolish, when his companions obligingly congratulated him on the satisfaction which his victory would give to Mrs. Clermont.

How little did they know Augusta's heart!-she looked at her daughters, and she sighed to think how fatally the expected success might operate on their future well being; but at the same time she secretly and solemnly resolved, that from that moment, though as yet the children of opulence, they, should be taught the privations which they might one day be forced to learn, as the children of comparative poverty.

At six o'clock the fortune of the day changed: the adverse party became the highest on the poll, and at night the books were closed, and Mr. Clermont's opponent declared the sitting member..

Augusta, on hearing the news, again burst into tears, and these were truly tears of joy; but when she saw the pale cheek and disappointed look of her husband, she felt a pang of something like remorse for the satisfaction which she had experienced, and, forgetting every thing but his mortification, tried every art of inventive love to beguile him of his cares.

7

Hypocrite!" cried Clermont, kindly but reproach fully, "I know in your heart you rejoice that I have failed.".

"I have two hearts," replied Augusta, blushing, “ one a conjugal, the other a maternal heart in the former I grieve acutely for your failure, in the other I rejoice at it; for, Q dear Charles! what anxiety to come does it not spare me!"

Clermont's next step was to call in all his election bills; but to his great surprise and distress he found it was not so easy a matter to discharge them: they amounted to some thousands; and on requiring from his bankers the remain

der of the ready money left him by his father, they made it appear quite clearly by their books that he bad drawn it all out long ago.

My dear Clermont," cried his wife, affectionately," let this painful surprise be the means of consoling you for the loss of your election: had you gained it, you would have had to pay the sum just the same, and to have incurred still greater expenses in perpetuity: the money is well bestowed if it has purchased for you experience, and motives for your being contented with your present situation."

Still when Clermont, having been forced to mortgage an estate, paid the money which he had raised into the hands of his agent, Augusta could not help exclaiming with a sigh, "what a pretty fortune that would have been for my poor girls!"

As soon as the money was paid Clermont thought no more of it, but continued to live in his accustomed style; to keep hounds, to give dinners, and with only £2000. a year to live at the rate of £5000.

Augusta, mean while, having in vain endeavoured to make him look into his affairs, was endeavouring by her scrupulous economy, and self-denial to balance her husband's extravagance. In her dress she was even parsimonious, though Clermont was continually presenting her with the most expensive apparel, laces, and ornaments: for she was the greatest pride of his heart still, and he was as vain of her beauty as ever he had been; therefore he loved to see her well dressed, and it was with difficulty she could contrive to hide, by tasteful and inventive economy and by varying the shape of her dresses, that the gowns themselves were old, very old. Clermont was continually discovering it, and wondering why she did not wear the fine muslins, laces, and cambrics which he gave her. Augusta only smiled, and Clermont was suffered to wonder still.

Her little boy was now eight years old; and Augusta, glad to save the expense of schooling as long as possible, recovering with ease the rudiments of the Latin tongue which her father had taught her, instructed him entirely herself; while she instructed the girls in every branch of household economy and needle-work and tried to prepare them to be independent and respectable on a narrow income.

One day Clermont had left home very early in the morn ing, and was not certain that he should return that night: he, however, altered his plans, and meeting by accident a gentleman at an inn, with whose society he was much

pleased, he invited him home to dine with him, and take a bed at his house.

They chanced to alight at the back gate; and unheard and unexpected Clermont and his new friend entered the breakfast room, where Augusta sat at dinner with her chil dren. But what a dinner! cold meat, potatoes, and pudding! while Augusta and her daughters were dressed in dark linen gowns, evidently bought for no other purpose than to save washing.

Clermont started back with surprise and consternation; but Augusta, not at all abashed though a stranger witnessed this instance of temperance and frugality in the family of as man of landed property, rose with dignity and welcomed the gentleman introduced by her husband.

"And pray, Mrs. Clermont," said Clermont, in a tone of pique and mortification, "is this the only dinner you have to give us?"

"Pardon me," replied Augusta, "this is our mode of living-yours is quite another thing; and if Mr. Medway will be contented to wait an hour or two, you shall have a dinner certainly."

So saying she left the room, leaving Clermont surprised. and displeased.

"My dear Sir," said he, "that woman has only one fault in the world, and that is, that she is teasingly and unnecessarily economical: she has a fine wardrobe, yet she wears that dowdy gown; and with a farm and estate stocked with all the good things of life she almost starves herself and the children;-I protest, if I did not still love her to distraction, I am so angry that I could leave my house directly, and not see her again for a month."

"Indeed, papa," cried the youngest child, "I am always glad when you dine at home, for then we get some nice things.'

Mr. Medway owned that the charge of over economy which Clermont brought against his wife was a very uncommon one, and he could not help pitying him for being united to such a mean spirited woman.

That evening and that night Clermont, for the first time, treated Augusta with sullen disregard: she had mortified his pride, and he resolved that he would wound her feelings. Augusta, however, took no notice of his unusual coldness, though she felt it sensibly; but when they met at breakfast, she looked as serene as usual. When dinner time approached, Clermont, who had been showing Mr. Medway

his grounds, seeing as he thought, the housekeeper in her pantry, put his head in at the window and calling "Evans,' desired her to give Mr. Medway one of her excellent jellies. In a few minutes some jellies were handed out at the window; and Clermont, looking up to thank Evans, beheld (a checked apron tied round her waist, and her bands still covered with the pastry which she had been making) Augusta

herself.

"What does this mean? Why is this?" faltered out Clermont: "Is Evans ill?”

"Evans has been gone some time, my love:-I heard of a better place for her than ours, and rather than she should lose it, I parted with her at a week's notice."

"And when does a servant in her place come home?" "Never," replied Augusta, mildly, but resolutely;-" I am my own housekeeper now, and I feel the use of it already." -Nay, dear Clermont, do not look so grave. Will your jellies and pastry be less grateful to your palate because they are made by the hands of your wife and children?"

Clermont was confounded: he did not answer, but walked away by himself, and Mr. Medway retired to dress. At dinner, Clermont was pensive, and even sad and another night he passed in silence, but not sullen silence. Augusta had gained her point; she had alarmed his fears, and he dreaded enquiry, yet felt the necessity of it; and he changed colour, when Augusta in a firm but solemn tone requested to see him alone in her dressing room after breakfast.

Clermont promised compliance, and as soon as the teatable was removed repaired to the place of rendezvous. But when Augusta saw him, and found that the time of the painful disclosure which she had to make was come, her wonted fortitude forsook her, and she burst into tears.

"Augusta! my love! my dearest love! do not grieve on my account; I know it is not for yourself that you feel," cried Clermont; "I guess what you have to tell me, I now see and understand the excellent motives of the conduct which surprised and displeased me:-but be assured, that whatever misfortune I have to learn, I shall hear it with cheerfulness: I owe it to you, not to add to the weakness which caused my embarrassments, the weakness to deplore them."

Augusta threw herself into her husband's arms; and as fast as her tears would let her, exclaimed, "A little courage and self-denial, Charles, and all will be well again."