Mr.
Berryl's education, disposition, and tastes, fitted him exactly for the station which he was destined to fill in society--that of a COUNTRY GENTLEMAN; not meaning by that expression a mere eating, drinking, hunting, shooting, ignorant country squire of the old race, which is now nearly extinct; but a cultivated, enlightened, independent English country gentleman--the happiest, perhaps, of human beings.

On the comparative felicity of the town and country life; on the dignity, utility, elegance, and interesting nature of their different occupations, and general scheme of passing their time, Mr.Berryl and Mr.Salisbury had one evening a playful, entertaining, and, perhaps, instructive conversation; each party, at the end, remaining, as frequently happens, of their own opinion.

It was observed that Miss Broadhurst ably and warmly defended Mr.Berryl's side of the question; and in their views, plans, and estimates of life, there appeared a remarkable, and as Lord Colambre thought, a happy coincidence.

When she was at last called upon to give her decisive judgment between a town and a country life, she declared that 'if she were condemned to the extremes of either, she should prefer a country life, as much as she should prefer Robinson Crusoe's diary to the journal of the idle man in the SPECTATOR.' 'Lord bless me! Mrs.Broadhurst, do you hear what your daughter is saying ?' cried Lady Clonbrony, who, from the card-table, lent an attentive ear to all that was going forward.

'Is it possible that Miss Broadhurst, with her fortune, and pretensions, and sense, can really be serious in saying she would be content to live in the country ?' 'What's that you say, child, about living in the country ?' said Mrs.
Broadhurst.
Miss Broadhurst repeated what she had said.
'Girls always think so who have lived in town,' said Mrs.Broadhurst.
'They are always dreaming of sheep and sheephooks; but the first winter the country cures them; a shepherdess, in winter, is a sad and sorry sort of personage, except at a masquerade.' 'Colambre,' said Lady Clonbrony, 'I am sure Miss Broadhurst's sentiments about town life, and all that, must delight you; for do you know, ma'am, he is always trying to persuade me to give up living in town?
Colambre and Miss Broadhurst perfectly agree.' 'Mind your cards, my dear Lady Clonbrony,' interrupted Mrs.Broadhurst, 'in pity to your partner.