To make some attonement for my last melancholy recital, to those of my readers who may not care to have their heads fill'd with subjects of too serious a nature, I shall now present them with one more likely to put in motion the risible muscles of the face, than to extort the falling of unwilling tears.

A gentleman, whom I shall call Conrade, had lived to the age of near seventy without ever testifying the least inclination to marriage; – he had been a man of pleasure in his youth, and probably the too great success he then found among the fair had deterr'd him from entering into an honourable engagement with any of the sex; – but there is no account for change of sentiment in this point, – an accident sometimes puts that into our heads which before we never thought of, or perhaps had an aversion to, – as it fell out in the case of the person I am speaking of.

A long friendship had subsisted between him and Murcio, a gentleman, who though not so far advanced in years, had made a better use of his time, – had been married, and was the father of three fine daughters, – two of whom had always lived with him; but the youngest, after the death of his wife, was taken from him, and brought up under the care of an aunt in the country.

The eldest of these ladies being now about to be disposed of in marriage, Conrade received, and accepted an invitation to the wedding; – Melanthe, sister to the bride, was a fine sparkling girl of nineteen; – but whether it were that she appear'd in reality more lovely than usual at this time, or that the mirth and pleasantries common at such solemnities rekindled the long smother'd embers of amorous desire in the breast of Conrade, so it was, that he, who had been in the company of this beautiful maid without ever taking any notice of her charms, now, all at once, became extremely smitten with them, – insomuch that from this moment he resolved on acquainting her father with his new passion, and asking his consent to make his addresses to her; which he did not at all despair of obtaining on the terms he intended to propose.