your profpects, Mr Edward Danby, in the French wine-trade?

O Sir, very great!

And will your master leave off to you and his nephew, think you?

I dare fay he would, and be glad of retiring to Enfield, where he has a houfe he is fo fond of, that he would be continually there by his good will.

And have you, Sir, any profpect of adding to your circumftances by marriage?!

Women are a drug, Sir. I have no doubt of offers, if once I were my own master.

I started. His fifter looked angry. His brother was not pleased: Mr Sylvefter, who, it seems, is an old bachelor, laughed

A true merchant this already! thought I.

Well, now, fhall I have your confents, gentlemen, to take your fifter afide? Will you trust yourself with me, Mifs Danby? Or had you rather anfwer my queftions in company ?

Sir, your character, your goodnefs, is fo well known, I fcruple not to attend you.

I took her hand, and led her to my study, leav. ing the door open, to the drawing-room in which they were. I seated her. Then fat down, but still

held her hand.

Now, my dear Mifs Danby, you are to fuppofe me, as the.executor of your uncle, his reprefentative. If you had that good uncle before you, and he was urging you to tell him what would make you happy, with an affurance that he would do all in his power towards it; and if you would open your mind freely to him, with equal freedom open it to me. There was only this difference between us: He had refentments against your father, which he carried too far when he extended them to his innocent children [But it was an atrocious attempt, that embittered his otherwife benevolent fpirit: I have no refentment and am armed with his

power

power, and have all the will he ever could have to ferve you. And now, let me know, what will effectually do it?

The worthy girl wept. She looked down. She feemed as if the were pulling threads out of her handkerchief. But was unable to return any other anfwer, than what her eyes, once caft up, as if to heaven, made for her.

Give me, my good Mifs Danby (I would not dif trefs you), give me, as your brothers did of their fituation, fome account of yours. Do you live with

either of your brothers?

No, Sir. I live with an aunt: My mother's fifter.

Is the good to you?

Yes, Sir, very good. But fhe has children; and cannot be fo good as fhe would be to me. Yet the has always been kind; and has made the best of my uncle's allowance for my education: And my fortune, which is unbroken, is the fame fum that he gave my brothers: And it is in good hands: And the intereft of it, with my aunt's additional goodnefs and management, enables me to make a genteel figure: And, with my own housewifery, I never have wanted fome little matters for my pocket.

Good girl! thought I-Mercantile carle! thy brother Edward, pretty one! How dared he to fay, that women are drugs?-Who in their economy, fhort as their power is, are generally fuperior to men!

Your uncle is very good to put you upon a foot with your brothers, in his bounty to them; as now he has also done in his will: And affure yourself, that his representative will be equally kind to you as to your brothers. But fhall I afk you, as your uncle would have done-Is there any one man in the world whom you prefer to another?

She was filent; looked down; and again picked her handkerchief.

I called

I called in her elder brother (not the drug-merchant), and asked him what he knew of his lifter's affections?

Why, my good Dr Bartlett, are these women afhamed of owning a laudable paffion? Surely there is nothing fhameful in difcreet love.

Her brother acquainted me with the ftory of her love; the good girl blushing, and looking down all the while, with the confcioufnefs of a sweet thief, who had stolen a heart, and being required to reftore it, had been guilty of a new cheat, and given her own instead of it.

The fon of Mr Galliard, an eminent Turkeymerchant, is the man with whom the has made this exchange. His father, who lives in the neighbourhood of her aunt, had fent him abroad, in the way of his traffick; partly with a view to prevent his marrying Mifs Danby, till it fhould be feen whether her uncle would do any thing confiderable for her : And he was but just returned; and, in order to be allowed to ftay at home, had promised his father never to marry without his confent: But nevertheless loved his fifter, Mr Danby faid, above all women; and declared that he never would be the husband of any other.

I afked, whether the father had any objections, but thofe of fortune, to his fon's choice; and was anfwered, No. He could have no other, the young man, like a brother, faid: There was not a more virtuous and difcreet young woman in the kingdom than his fifter, though he said it, that should not say it.

Though you fay it, that should not fay it! Is not our relation intitled to the fame justice that we would do to another?

We must not blame indifcriminately, continued I, all fathers who expect a fortune to be brought into their family, in fome meafure equivalent to the bemefit the new-comer hopes to receive from it; efpe

cially

cially in mercantile families, if the young man is to be admitted into a fhare with his father; who, by the way, may have other children

He has

Something by way of equivalent for the part he gives up, fhould be done. Love is a felfith deity. He puts two perfons upon preferring their own interefts, nay, a gratification of their paffion often against their interefts, to thofe of every-body elfe; and reafon, difcretion, duty, are frequently given up in a competition with it. But love, neverthelefs, will not do every-thing for the ardent pair. Parents know this: And ought not to pay for the rashness they wish to prevent, but cannot.

They were attentive. I proceeded, addreffing myself to both in the mercantile ftile.

Is a father, who, by his prudence, has weathered many a storm, and got fafe into port, obliged to reimbark in the voyage of life, with the young folks, who, perhaps, in a little while, will confider him as an incumbrance, and grudge him his cabin? Parents (though a young man, I have always thought in this manner) fhould be indulgent; but children, when they put themselves into one scale, fhould allow the parent his due weight in the other. You are angry at this father, are you not, my dear Mifs Danby?

I faid this, to hear what answer she would return.

Indeed I am not. Mr Galliard knows beft his own affairs, and what they require. I have faid fo twenty and twenty times: And young Mr Galliard is convinced, that his father is not to be blamed, having other children. And, to own the truth (looking on the floor), we both fit down, and wish together, now-and then: But what fignifies wifhing?

My fifter will now have two thousand pounds: Perhaps when old Mr Galliard fees, that his fon's affections

Old

Old Mr Galliard, interrupted I, fhall be afked to do nothing inconvenient to himself, or that is not ftrictly right by his other children: Nor fhall the niece of my late worthy friend enter into his family with difcredit to herself.

Notice being given, that fupper was ready, I took the brother and fifter each by the hand; and, entering the drawing-room with them, Enjoy, faid I, the little repaft that will be fet before you. If it be in my power to make you all three happy, hapPy you fhall be.

It must give great pleasure, my dear Dr Bartlett, you will believe, to a man of my lively fenfations, to fee three very different faces in the fame perfons, from those they had entered with. I imagined more than once, as the grateful eyes of the fifter, and tongues of the brothers, expreffed their joy, that I faw my late worthy friend looking down upon us, delighted, and not with disapprobation, upon his choice of an executor, who was determined to fupply the defects, which the frailty of human nature, by an over-ftrong refentment on one hand, and an overflowing gratitude on the other, had occafioned.

I told Mr Thomas Danby, that, befides his legacy, he might reckon upon five thousand pounds, and enter accordingly into treaty for and with his master's niece.

Mr Edward Danby I commiffioned, on the ftrength of the like additional fum, to treat with the gentleman he had ferved.

And you, my good Mifs Danby, faid I, fhall acquaint your favoured Mr Galliard, That, befides the two thousand pounds already yours, you will have five thousand pounds more at his fervice. And if thefe fums anfwer not your full purpofes, I expect you will let me know; fince, whether they do or not, my refpect to the memory of your worthy uncle fhall be fhewn to the value of more than these

three