^' Yes, quite a love match on both sides vand it is said that,,
though her husband^s attachment survived not the first year
of their union, hers still exists in all its pristine force/'

*^ How strange," replied I, ^^ that he could cease to love a
woman; whidse personal attractions ane, as your ladyship
affirms, nearly equalled by her mental ones/'

*' Not at all strange," she rejoined, *' if one reflects on the
selfishness, the frivolity, and the imbecility of the generality
of our men of fashion. Attracted l^y the beauty of a woman,
as they are by that of a horse, a picture, a statue, or any other
object, the possession of which is likftly to excite the envy of
their acquaintances, they eagerly seek to attain it. The novelty
worn oiF, what remains? Incapable of appreciating the
mental qualifications of their wives, or of feeling the thousand
nameless charms that exist in the sacred union of congenial
sentiments, and the endearing ties of habit, which in well
regulated minds and warm hearts, ^ render the wife dearer^
than the bride ;' the heartless voluptuary of modern days turns
from the beauty he has now, to seek, not a fairer, but a newer,
face; leaving the disappointed, and often wretched wife, to
weep over his neglect, or to resent it to her own undoing.
His club, the gaming table, Newmarket, and field sports, oc-
cupy his time so much, as to leave little, if any of it, to bestow
on her, he had chosen, ' for better and for worae^ la^^VskssR^R.
