 attachment. He enquired not into the cause of this
estrangement, satisfied with it's effect; and had secretly determined
to give Mrs. Stafford no assistance in the endeavours she was using to
keep her family from dispersion and distress.

But statesman as he was, he could not entirely forget that he _once_
felt as other men; and he could not hear, without some emotion, the
melancholy description that Mrs. Stafford gave of the impending ruin of
her family and all it's fearful consequences: which she did with so much
clear simplicity, yet with so much proper dignity, that he found his
resolution shaken; and recollecting _that he had a conscience_, was
about to ask it by what right he assumed the power of rendering an
innocent family wandering exiles, merely to save himself from a supposed
possible inconvenience.

But while every lingering principle of goodness and generosity was
rising in the bosom of his Lordship to assist the suit of Mrs. Stafford,
a servant entered hastily and announced the Duke of N----. His Grace of
course waited not in the anti-room, but was immediately introduced.

Lord Montreville then civilly apologized to Mrs. Stafford for being
unable to conclude the business; adding, that if she would see Sir
Richard Crofts the next day, he would take care it should be settled to
her satisfaction. She withdrew with a heavy heart; and feeling infinite
reluctance in the proposed application to Sir Richard Crofts, she
employed the whole afternoon in attempting to move, in favour of her
husband, some of those friends who had formerly professed the most
unbounded and disinterested friendship for him and his family.

Of many of these, the doors were shut against her; others affected the
utmost concern, and lamented that their little power and limited
fortunes did not allow them to assist in repairing the misfortunes they
deplored: some told her how long they had foreseen Mr. Stafford's
embarrassments, and how destructive building and scheming were to a
moderate fortune; while others made vague proffers of inadequate
services, which on farther conversation she found they never intended to
perform if unluckily she had accepted their offers. In all, she saw too
plainly that they looked on Mr. Stafford's affairs as desperate; and in
their coldness and studied civility, already felt all the misery and
mortification of reduced circumstances.

With encreased anguish, she was now compelled to go, on the following
day, to Sir Richard Crofts; whom she knew only from Emmeline's
description.

He also, in imitation of his patron, had his anti-chamber filled with
soliciting faces. She
