politeness to us, a man may afford to fhew politeness to those he has refolved to keep at a distance from his heart. But ah, Lucy!-There must be one happy woman, whom he wifhes not to keep at diftance. This is the affair that hangs in fufpenfe; and of which, therefore, he chufes to fay nothing. I HAVE had the pleasure of a vifit from my godfather Deane. He dined with us this day in his way to town. The ladies, Dr Bartlett, and my Lord L. are charmed with him. Yet I had pain mingled with my pleasure. He took me afide, and charged me fo home-He was too inquifitive. I never knew him to be fo very urgent to know my heart. But I was frank: Very frank: I fhould hardly have been excufeable, if I had not, to fo good a man, and fo dear a friend. Yet he fcarce knew how to be fatisfied with my franknefs. He will have it, that I look thinner and paler than I used to do. That may very well be. My very foul, at times-I know not how I am- Sir Charles is in fufpenfe too, from fomebody abroad. From my heart I pity him. Had he but fome faults, fome great blemishes, I fancy I should be eafier about him. But to hear nothing of him but what is fo greatly praife-worthy, and my heart fo delighted with acts of beneficence-And now, my godfather Deane, at this vifit running on in his praises, and commending, inftead of blaming me for my prefumptuous thoughts; nay, exalting me, and telling me that I deferve him that I deferve Sir Charles Grandifon!-Why did he not chide me? Why did he not diffuade me?-Neither fortune nor merit anfwerable?-A man who knows fo well what to do with fortune!-The Indies, my dear, ought to be his! What a king would he make! Power could not corrupt fuch a mind as his. Cæfar, faid Dr Bartlett, fpeaking of him before Mr Deane Deane and all of us, was not quicker to deftroy than Sir Charles Grandifon is to relieve. Emily's eyes, at the time, ran over with joy at the expreffion; and, drying them, the looked proudly round on us all, as if fhe had faid, This is my guardian ! But what do you think, Lucy? My godfather will have it, that he fees a young paffion in Miss Jervois for her guardian!-God forbid! A young love may be conquered, I believe; but who fhall caution the innocent girl? She must have a sweet pleasure in it, creeping, ftealing upon her. How can fo unexperienced a heart, the object fo meritorious, refiit or reject the indulgence? But, O my Emily fweet girl! do not let your love get the better of your gratitude, left it make you unhappy and, what would be ftill more affecting to a worthy heart, make the generous object of a paffion that cannot be gratified unhappy; and for that very reafon, because he cannot reward it! See you not already, that, with all his goodness, he is not quite happy? He is a fufferer from worthy women-O my Emily, do not you add to the infelicity of a man, who can make but one woman happy; yet wishes to befriend all the world-But hufh! felfish advifer! Should not Harriet Byron have thought of this in time?-Yet the knew not that he had any previous engagements: And may death lay his cold hand upon her heart, before the become an additional disturbance to his! He knows not, I hope, he gueffes not, though Dr Bartlett has found me out as well as the fifters, that I am captivated, heart and foul, by his merits. May he never know it, if the knowledge of it would give him the fhadow of uneafinefs! I owned to Mr Deane, that my Lord L. and the ladies were warmly interested in my favour. Thank God for that! he faid. All muft happen to his wifh. Nay, he would have it, that Sir Charles's goodnefs would be rewarded in having fuch a wife: But But what wife can do more than her duty to any husband who is not abfolutely a favage? How then can all I could do reward fuch a man as this? But, Lucy, don't you blush for me, on reading this laft paffage of my writing? You may, fince 1 blush myself on re-perufing it. For fhaine, Harriet Byron, put a period to this letter!-I will nor fubfcribe to it fo much as the initials of my name. ; LETTER V. Sir CHARLES GRANDISON, To Dr BARTLETT. [Inclofed in the preceding.] Friday, Mar. 17. LAST higiend Mr Derby. I had caufed his I fav interred AST night I faw interred the remains of my two nephews and his niece to be invited : But they did not attend. As the will was not to be opened till the funeral was over, about which the good man had given me verbal directions; apprehending, I believe, expoftulations from me, had I known the contents : I fent to them this morning to be present at the opening. Their attorney, Mr Sylvester, a man of character and good behaviour, brought me a letter, figned by all three, excufing themselves on very flight pretences, and defired that he might be prefent for them. I took notice to him, that the behaviour of his principals, over-night and now, was neither refpectful to the memory of their uncle, nor civil with regard to me. He honestly owned, that Mr. Danby having acquainted his two nephews, a little before he died, that he had made his will, and that they they had very little to expect from him, they, who had been educated by his direction, and made merchants at his expence, with hopes given them, that he would, at his death, do very handsomely for them, and had never difobliged him, could not be prefent at the opening of a will, the contents of which they expected to be fo mortifying to them. I opened it in presence of this gentleman. The preamble was an angry one; giving reafons for his refentment against the father of these young perfons, who (though his brother) had once, as I hinted to you at Colnebrook, made a very fhocking attempt upon his life. I was hurt, however, to find a refentment carried fo far against the innocent children of the offender, and into the last will of fo good a man; that will fo lately made, as within three weeks of his death; and he given over for three months before. Will the tenderness due to the memory of a friend permit me to afk, where would that refentment have stopt, had the private man been a monarch, which he could carry into his laft will? But fee we not, on the other hand, that these children, had they power, would have punished their uncle, for difpofing, as he thought fit, of his own fortune; no part of which came to him by inheritance? They had been educated, as I have faid, at his expence, and, in the phrafe of bufinefs, well put out: Expences their carelefs father would not have been at He is, in every light, a bad man. How much better had thefe children's title been to a more confiderable part of their uncle's eftate than he has bequeathed to them, had they been thankful for the benefits they had actually received! Benefits which are of fuch a nature, that they cannot be taken from them. Mr Danby has bequeathed to each of the three, E One one thousand pounds; but on exprefs condition, that they fignify to his executor, within two months after his demife, their acceptance of it, in full of all demands upon his eftate. If they do not (tender being duly made), the three thousand pounds are to be carried to the uses of the will. He then appoints his executor, and makes him refiduary legatee; giving for reafon, that he had been the principal inftrument in the hand of providence of faving his life. He bequeaths fome generous remembrances to three of his friends in France; and requests his executor to difpofe of three thousand pounds to charitable uses, either in France or England, as he thinks fit, and to what particular objects he pleases. And, by an inventory annexed to the will, his effects, in money, bills, actions, and jewels, are made to amount to upwards of thirty thousand pounds fterling. Mr Sylvefter complimented me on this great windfall, as he called it; and affured me, that it fhould be his advice to his clients, that each take his and her legacy, and fit down contented with it: And he believed, that they the rather would, as, from what their uncle had hinted, they apprehended, that the fum of a hundred pounds each was all they had to hope for. I enquired into the inclinations and views of the three; and received a very good general account of them; with a hint, that the girl was engaged in a love-affair. Their father, after his vile attempt upon his brother's life, was detefted by all his friends and relations, and went abroad; and the last news they heard of him was, that he was in a very ill state of health, and in unhappy circumstances in Barbadoes! And very probably by this time is no more. I |