 did me in allowing me to attend you hither, it was a favour as well as a gratification for which my thanks instead of yours are due.
I believe that had Mr. Benseley's death taken place previous to your father's, he would have nominated me your guardian: as this event has followed, I owe it in duty to my deceased friend, as well as from my esteem for you, to take on me the care of your affairs; and as the first proof of your obedience, I exact an eternal silence on the subject, either of apology or gratitude. Let us consider

then, continued he in the same breath, to prevent our again interrupting him with apologies, what steps we ought next to pursue. I am of opinion that an application to Lord Belmont cannot too soon be made; and if I have your permission, shall undertake to write to him this very day.
We instantly closed with the proposal, and he directly left us to set about the task; in the success of which he seems as anxious, and as deeply interested, as if we were his most intimate connections and our lives depended on the issue. The happiness of our lives at least certainly hang on the event. Oh! my Sophia, think of our critical situation, and feel for the agitation of my mind at this moment. A few hours will decide all—will determine whether we are outcasts from our family, deserted and friendless, or received with tender emotion to the bosom of a parent, to whom, though

unknown, my heart glows with the warmest affection and most filial respect. My soul, melted by an eternal separation from one yet more dearly beloved, dissolves with the soft ideas which rush upon my mind. Imagination, never more busy than in the moments of agitation, perpetually represents some future scene of affecting delight, and while I weep the bitter loss of one father, I see myself every moment encircled in the arms of another —whom heaven yet preserves.
DEC. 3.
Fanny, whose heart is always full of soothing hopes, strives to recompence the disappointment we have suffered in the death of Mr. Benseley, by anticipating happiness under the protection of Lord Belmont; but the painful uncertainty of what may be his Lordship's

determination, is, alas! rendered more acute by delay. Mr. Howard went out yesterday immediately after dinner, intending himself to deliver the letter he had written.
The servant who opened the door, on being asked if his Lordship was at home, returned for answer that he was not expected till spring.
Is then
