. His
attendance was indeed less remarkable when Lord Clancarryl, his brother,
was also present; but Mrs. Bancraft, determined to believe ill of me,
suffered not this circumstance to have any weight, and hinted her
suspicions of our attachment in terms so little guarded, that it was
with the utmost difficulty I could prevail on Fitz-Edward not to resent
her impertinence.

'Lord Clancarryl despised this vulgar and disgusting woman too much to
attend to the inuendos he heard; and far from suspecting my unhappy
weakness, he continued to lay me under new obligations to Fitz-Edward by
employing him almost incessantly in the arrangement of Trelawny's
affairs.

'On looking over the will of that relation, who had bequeathed to Mr.
Trelawny the great fortune he had possessed, I discovered the reason of
Mrs. Bancraft's attentive curiosity in regard to me--if he died without
heirs, above six thousand a year was to descend to her son, who was to
take the name. He had been now married above two years, and his bloated
and unhealthy appearance (the effect of excessive drinking) indicated
short life; and had made her for some time look forward to the
succession of the entailed estate as an event almost certain for her
son. This sufficiently explained her conduct, and encreased all my
apprehensions; for I found that avarice would stimulate malice into that
continued watchfulness which I could not now undergo without the loss of
my fame and my peace.

'All things being settled by Lord Clancarryl in the best manner he could
dispose them for Mr. Trelawny, his Lordship pressed me to go with him to
Ireland; but conscious that I should carry only disgrace and sorrow into
the happy and respectable family of my sister, I refused, under pretence
of waiting to hear again from Trelawny before I took any resolution as
to my future residence.

'His Lordship therefore left me, having obtained my promise to go over
to Lough Carryl in the spring. Fitz-Edward continued to see me almost
every day, attempting by the tenderest assiduity to soothe and
tranquillize my mind. But time, which alleviates all other evils, only
encreased mine; and they were now become almost insupportable. After
long deliberation, I saw no way to escape the disgrace which was about
to overwhelm me, but hiding myself from my own family and from all the
world. I determined to keep my retreat secret, even from Fitz-Edward
himself; and to punish myself for my fatal attachment by tearing myself
for ever from it's object. Could I have supported the contempt of the
world, to
