"Lady Delacour has an incomparable taste in dress: consult her, my dear,
and do not, by an ill-judged economy, counteract my views--apropos, I have
no objection to your being presented at court. You will, of course, have
credit with all her ladyship's tradespeople, if you manage properly. To
know how and when to lay out money is highly commendable, for in some
situations, people judge of what one can afford by what one actually
spends.--I know of no law which compels a young lady to tell what her age
or her fortune may be. You have no occasion for caution yet on one of
these points.

"I have covered my old carpet with a handsome green baize, and every
stranger who comes to see me, I observe, takes it for granted that I have
a rich carpet under it. Say every thing that is proper, in your best
manner, for me to Lady Delacour.

"Adieu, my dear Belinda,

"Yours, very sincerely,

"SELINA STANHOPE."



It is sometimes fortunate, that the means which are taken to produce
certain effects upon the mind have a tendency directly opposite to what is
expected. Mrs. Stanhope's perpetual anxiety about her niece's appearance,
manners, and establishment, had completely worn out Belinda's patience;
she had become more insensible to the praises of her personal charms and
accomplishments than young women of her age usually are, because she had
been so much flattered and _shown off_, as it is called, by her