had not humility enough,) to make any living creature acquainted with my situation: and this was the reason, I suppose, that I never was guessed at or found out. The proverb says, Two can keep a secret when one is away: but my Harriet knows [I bowed] that I very early, in my knowledge of her, dropt hints of an entanglement, as I ludicrously called it; for I could not, with justice, say

love.

SIR CH. Charming frankness! How do your virtues shine through your very mistakes!-But there are many women who have suffered themselves to be worse entangled, even beyond recovery, when they have not had to plead the apprehensions which you had at entering into this affair.

MISS GR. You are Sir Charles Grandison, sir: I need not say more. We often dread, in rash engagements, to make those communications, which only can be a means to extricate us from the difficulties into which we have plunged ourselves. Had I, for the last six or seven years of my life, known my brother as I now know him; had I been indulged in a correspondence with him in his absence; not a step would I have taken, but with his approbation.

SIR CH. Perhaps I was too implicit on this occasion: but I always thought it more safe, in a disputable case, to check, than to give way to, an inclination. My father knew the world. He was not an ill-natured man. He loved his daughters. I had not the vanity to imagine that my sisters, the youngest near as old as myself, would want my advice, in material articles: and to break through a father's commands, for the sake merely of gratifying myself—I don't know how-But I could not do it: and as a considerate person, when he has lost a dear friend, and

more particularly a parent, is apt to recollect with pleasure those instances in which he has given joy to the departed, and with pain the contrary; methinks I am the more satisfied with myself for having obeyed a command, that, however, at the time, I knew not how to account for.

MISS GR. You are happy, brother, in this recollection. I should be more unhappy than I am, (on your principles,) had I vexed my father in this affair. Thank God he knew nothing of it! But now, sir, I have told you the whole truth. I have not aggravated the failings of Captain Anderson; nor wish to do so; for the man that once I had but the shadow of a thought to make one day my nearest relation, is entitled, I think, to my good wishes, though he prove not quite so worthy as I believed him.

Permit me, however, to add, that Captain Anderson is passionate, overbearing: I have never of late met him, but with great reluctance: had I not come to Colnebrook, I should have seen him, as I confessed; but it was with the resolution that I had for a considerable time past avowed to him, never to be his; and to be a single woman all my life, if he would not disengage me of my rash, my foolish promise. And now be pleased (looking round her to every one present) to advise me what to do.

LORD L. I think the man utterly unworthy of you, sister Charlotte. I think you are right to resolve never to have him.

LADY L. Without waiting for my brother's opinion, I must say, that he acts most ungenerously and unworthily, to hold you to an unequal promise: a promise, the like of which you offered not to bind him by. I cannot, Charlotte, think you bound by such a promise: and the poor trick of getting another person to write his letters for him,

and exposing my sister to a stranger, and against stipulation-How I should hate him!-What say you, sister Harriet?

HAR. I should be unworthy of this kind confidence, if, thus called upon, I did not say something, though it came out to be next to nothing-There seems not to have been any strong affection, any sympathy of soul, if I may so express myself, at any time, Miss Grandison, between you and Captain Anderson, I think?

SIR CH. A very proper question.

MISS GR. There was not, on either side, I believe. I have hinted at my motives, and at his. In every letter of his, he gave me cause to confirm what I have said of his self-interestedness: and now his principal plea to hold me to my promise is, his interest. I would not to him, I never did, plead mine; though his example would excuse me, if I did.

LORD L. Was the promise given in writing, sister?
MISS GR. Indeed it was. She looked down.

HAR. May I be pardoned, madam?-The substance of your promise was, that you would never marry any other man without his consent, while he remained unmarriedDid you promise, that, if ever you did marry at all, it should be to him?

MISS GR. No. He wanted me to promise that; but I refused. And now, my Harriet, what is your advice?

HAR. I beg to hear Dr. Bartlett's opinion, and yours, sir, (to Sir Charles,) before I presume to give mine.

Sir Charles looked at the doctor. The doctor referred himself to him.

SIR CH. Then, doctor, you must set me right, if I am wrong. You are a casuist,

As to what Lord L has said, I think with his lordship, that Captain Anderson appears not, in any of his conduct, to be worthy of Miss Grandison: and, in truth, I don't know many who are. If I am partial, excuse the brother.

She bowed. Every one was pleased that Miss Grandison was enabled to hold up her head, as she did, on this compliment from her brother.

SIR CH. I think also, if my sister esteems him not, she is in the right to resolve never to be his. But what shall we say, as to her promise, Never to be the wife of any other man without his consent, while he remains unmarried? It was made, I apprehend, while her father was living; who might, I believe, doctor, you will allow, have absolved her from it: but then, her very treating with him since to dispense with it, shews that, in her own conscience, she thinks herself bound by it.

Every one being silent, he proceeded.

Lady L is of opinion, that he acts ungenerously and unworthily, to endeavour to hold her to an unequal promise: but what man, except a very generous one indeed, having obtained an advantage over such a woman as Charlotte, [she reddened,] would not try to hold it? Must he not, by giving up this advantage, vote against himself? Women should be sure of the men in whom they place a confidence that concerns them highly. Can you think that the man who engages a woman to make a promise, does not intend to hold her to it? When he teases her to make it, he as good as tells her he does, let what will happen to make her wish she had not.

MISS GR. O my brother! The repetition of that word teases!-Are you not rallying me?—Indeed I deserve it.

SIR CH. Men gain all their advantages by teasing, by promises, by importunities--Be not concerned, my Charlotte, that I use your word.

MISS GR. O my brother! what shall I do, if you rally me on my folly?

SIR CH. I mean not to rally you. But I know something of my own sex; and must have been very negligent of my opportunities, if I know not something of the world. [I thought, Lucy, he would here have used the word other instead of the word world.] We have heard her reason for not binding the captain by a like promise: which was, that she did not value him enough to exact it: and was not that his misfortune?

She is apprehensive of blame on this head: but her situation will be considered: I must not repeat the circumstances. I was grieved to hear that my sisters had been in such circumstances! What pity, that those who believe they best know the sex, think themselves entitled to treat it with least respect! [How we women looked upon one another!] I should hope in charity, [in charity, Lucy,] and for the true value I bear it, as I think a good woman one of the greatest glories of the creation, that the fault is not generally in the sex.

As to the captain's artifice to obtain a footing by letters of another man's writing; that was enough, indeed, to make a woman, who herself writes finely, despise him when she knew it. But to what will not some persons stoop, to gain a point on which their hearts are fixed?— This is no new method. One signal instance I will mention. Madam Maintenon, it is reported, was employed in this way, by a favourite mistress of Louis XIV. And this was said to be the means of introducing her to the monarch's favour, on the ruins of her employer. Let me