'Sir,' cried I, 'the family which you now condescend to favour with your company, has been bred with as nice a sense of honour as you.

Any attempts to injure that, may be attended with very dangerous consequences.

Honour, Sir, is our only possession at present, and of that last treasure we must be particularly careful.'-- I was soon sorry for the warmth with which I had spoken this, when the young gentleman, grasping my hand, swore he commended my spirit, though he disapproved my suspicions.

'As to your present hint,' continued he, 'I protest nothing was farther from my heart than such a thought.

No, by all that's tempting, the virtue that will stand a regular siege was never to my taste; for all my amours are carried by a coup de main.' The two ladies, who affected to be ignorant of the rest, seemed highly displeased with this last stroke of freedom, and began a very discreet and serious dialogue upon virtue: in this my wife, the chaplain, and I, soon joined; and the 'Squire himself was at last brought to confess a sense of sorrow for his former excesses.