 good deal in his mind, and though he doubted whether he should avail himself of such an opportunity of aggrandizing his family—especially as he had no son—yet, as he could see nothing but attention to his interest in the conduct of Gloss, he certainly conceived from that moment a great regard for him. This was prodigiously augmented by the attention this last mentioned gentleman paid to Castlewick, and the actual advantage its interests received from his advice, which both gave the baronet an insight into his capacity, and confirmed his good opinion of it. All these circumstances co-operating, as indeed Emma has already told us, no wonder if he had familiar entrance to his house, afterwards to his heart, and at length an offer of his alliance.
Mr. Gloss took care also to appear the friend of Charles; but then his mediation never came without an insinuation that he was more a friend to honour. In short the two characters were so strikingly contrasted in the mind of the baronet, that

without any great stretch of propriety, the reader must allow, under these circumstances, that it is not to be wondered he should turn about in the manner I have described. Besides—for I would fain sum up every trifling figure, to make the aggregate of my reasons upon so important a point convincing—Sir Sidney felt a delicate, a nice repugnance, perhaps too much so, at the idea of a connection with the son of a man who had destroyed himself, and who had, assuredly, borne in his youth a very bad character.
Again, he plainly foresaw that all his benevolent attempts at Little Hockley would soon be frustrated by the innovations of the young lord; for it was not yet so firmly rooted but that, owing to a new crew of revellers, it began already to lose ground. This, and the recollection of the ancient feuds, which he now feared would be renewed, heartily conquered his inclination to be in any respect allied to the family of Lord Hazard, though he admired the talents of our hero, and really had such a value for him as to wish his welfare, though he doubted whether he would ever deserve it.
Mr. Standfast and Mrs. O'Shocknesy must now become a little the subject of our attention. That gentleman and lady had been sometime married:

but it was the wish of both that it should not be published. She brought with her a comfortable number of debts, and being now a femme couverte, very soon contracted a number more. In short, there were no bounds to her extravagance, which Mr. Standsast seemed as anxious to feed as
