We'll talk of this some other time, replied he; but I must, in prudence,
put some bounds to your amiable generosity. I had always intended to
surprise you into this discovery; but my sister led the way to it, out
of a poorness in her spite, that I could not brook: And though you have
pleased me beyond expression, in your behaviour on this occasion; yet
I can't say, that you have gone much beyond my expectations; for I have
such a high opinion of you, that I think nothing could have shaken
it, but a contrary conduct to this you have expressed on so tender a
circumstance. Well, sir, said the dear little miss, then you will not let me go home
with my aunt, will you? I am sure she will love me. When you break up
next, my dear, said he, if you are a good girl, you shall pay your new
aunt a visit. She made a low courtesy. Thank you, sir, answered she.
Yes, my dear, said I, and I will get you some fine things against the
time. I would have brought you some now, had I known I should have seen
my pretty love. Thank you, madam, returned she. How old, sir, said I, is miss?
Between six and seven, answered he. Was
she ever, sir, said I, at your house? My sister, replied he, carried her
thither once, as a near relation of her lord's. I remember, sir, said I,
a little miss; and Mrs. Jervis and I took her to be a relation of Lord
Davers. My sister, returned he, knew the whole secret from the beginning; and it
made her a great merit with me, that she kept it from the knowledge
of my father, who was then living, and of my mother, to her dying-day;
though she descended so low in her rage, to hint the matter to you.
The little misses took their leaves soon after: and I know not how, but
I am strangely affected with this dear child. I wish he would be so good
as to let me have her home. It would be a great pleasure to have such
a fine opportunity, obliged as I am, to shew my love for himself, in my
fondness for his dear miss. As we came home together in the chariot, he gave me the following
particulars of this affair, additional to what he had before mentioned:
That this lady was of a good family, and the flower of it but that her
mother was a person of great art and address, and not altogether so nice
in the particular between himself and miss, as she ought to have been:
That, particularly, when she had reason to find him unsettled and wild,
and her daughter in more danger from him, than he was from her, yet she
encouraged their privacies; and even, at last, when she had reason
to apprehend, from their being surprised together, in a way not so
creditable to the lady, that she was far from forbidding their private
meetings; on the contrary, that, on a certain time, she had set one that
had formerly been her footman, and a half-pay officer, her relation, to
watch an opportunity, and to frighten him into a marriage with the lady:
That, accordingly, when they had surprised him in her chamber, just
as he had been let in, they drew their swords upon him, and threatened
instantly to kill him, if he did not promise marriage on the spot; and
that they had a parson ready below stairs, as he found afterwards: That
then he suspected, from some strong circumstances, that miss was in the
plot; which so enraged him, with their menaces together, that he drew,
and stood upon his defence; and was so much in earnest, that the man he
pushed into the arm, and disabled; and pressing pretty forward upon
the other, as he retreated, he rushed in upon him near the top of the
stairs, and pushed him down one pair, and he was much hurt by the fall:
Not but that, he said, he might have paid for his rashness; but that
the business of his antagonists was rather to frighten than to kill
him: That, upon this, in the sight of the old lady, the parson she had
provided, and her other daughters, he went out of their house, with
bitter execrations against them all.