 me for a misfortune they had themselves taken no pains to prevent. This dreadful meeting must however be hazarded: I tottered as well as I was able into the dining-room, and sending for my father out of his counting-house, I put into his hands the fatal note, and informed him as well as I could of what had happened. He

was too reasonable to blame me for an error he had as little foreseen himself; but hastening out of the room with Elphinstone, enquired, as I afterwards learned, whether he thought Beresford meant to marry my sister? Elphinstone, with some hesitation, answered that he feared not. "Let us then," said he, "endeavour to find her, and if it be possible, hush up this unhappy affair before it becomes more known."
"Elphinstone most willingly agreed to assist him in the search, and my elder brother was sent for from the Temple for the same purpose. His anger and indignation were much more turbulent than my father's. He vowed vengeance against Beresford, and sat out in pursuit of him in such a temper of mind as made me dread the consequence should he find him.
"To find him, however, every effort proved abortive. Among other places, my Mr. Elphinstone went to enquire for him at the lodgings his elder brother had taken in Piccadilly. The 'Squire received him

with that contemptuous coldness which he thought was all he owed to a merchant's clerk; and upon his eager enquiry after Berresford, and learning the reason of it, he said—"What a fuss is here, indeed, about a little grisette: why, one would think Beresford had carried off an heiress. Let him alone, and I dare say he will bring her back again." His brother, enraged at this insult, spoke to him very freely, which he returned no otherwise than by calling him quill-driver, and maccaroni of Mincing-lane. The brothers parted in wrath; and the younger returned home lamenting his fruitless search, and devising new measures for the next day. These, however, were equally successless. Poor Emily was lost to us for ever; and the feeble hope that Beresford might have married her every day became fainter.
"This unhappy affair put an end to our intercourse with the Elphinstone family, and was indeed the first signal of a long long series of calamities. I observed that

my father grew extremely uneasy at something that related to the situation of his affairs: he began to complain that Mr. Elphinstone's remittances fell very short of
