 much I am hers,
HENRY BOLTON.


THE answer which Bolton received to the foregoing letter, contained a piece of intelligence material to the situation of Miss Sindall; it conveyed to him an account of the death of Mrs. Selwyn.
Though that lady was not possessed of many amiable or engaging qualities, yet Lucy, to whom she had always shown as much kindness as her nature allowed her to bestow on any one, felt a very lively sorrow for her death, even exclusive of the immediate consequences which herself was to expect from that event.
These indeed were apparently momentous. Mrs. Selwyn had been her guardian and protectress from her infancy; and though sir Thomas Sindall had ever behaved to her like a father, yet there was a feeling in the bosom of Lucy, that revolted against the idea of continuing in his house after his aunt's decease. By that lady's will she was entitled to a legacy of six hundred pounds; by means of this sum she had formed a scheme, which, though it would •educe her to a state very different from the ease and affluence of her former circumstances, might yet secure her from the irksomeness of dependance, or the accusation of impropriety; this was, to appropriate two thirds of the interest of her capital to the payment of an annual sum for her board with Mrs. Wistanly.
It was now that Bolton felt the advantage of independance from the hopes of being useful to Lucy; but he had her delicacy to overcome: she would not throw herself, at this moment of necessity, into the arms of a man whom fortune had now placed above her. She adhered to her first resolution.
But the kindness of sir Thomas Sindall rendered it unnecessary; for, a short time after Mrs. Selwyn's death, when Miss Sindall communicated to him her intention of leaving his house, he addressed her in the following terms: "I have always looked upon you, Miss Lucy, as a daughter, and, I hope, there •as been no want of tenderness or attention on the side of my aunt or myself to have prevented your regarding us as parents.
At the same time, I know the opinions of the world; mistaken and illiberal as they often are, there is a deference which we are obliged to pay them: in your sex the sense of decorum should he ever awake; even in this case, I would not attempt to plead against its voice; but I hope I have hit on a method which will perfectly reconcile propriety and convenience. There is a lady,

a distant relation of our family,
