, said she, but as I imagined the subject of which it treated would be better discussed by an interview than by writing, I delayed an answer till it was in my power to come to town. You tell me Sir, continued she, that two daughters of the late unfortunate Lord Linrose are come over from his retreat in France, under the idea that my Lord Belmont will be induced to countenance and acknowledge them. This, admitting that they really are his children, was surely a very strange and unaccountable step. It is indeed extraordinary to suppose that his Lordship, so justly irritated against their father, whose ill conduct, not to say crimes, have been the destruction of his peace and the ruin of his constitution, will be easily if ever prevailed with to favour

with his notice, two girls who are the pledges of family dishonour, and the offspring of a calamity which has loaded his declining years with affliction. I think it would have been at least prudent in their friends to have advised them to sound my Lord's intentions before they ventured on a proceeding so rash as that of leaving the Continent without his permission.
Mr. Howard then explained that our journey was in consequence of the commands of a gentleman who had been left our guardian, but who on our arrival we found had unfortunately expired a few days before.
I am much surprised, said she, that any gentleman should take upon him to act in such intricate circumstances without my Lord Belmont's approbation, who alone was empowered to fix their residence where he pleased.
Mr. Benseley could not be certain,

Madam, said Mr. Howard, that my Lord would at all concern himself about his grand children, after the unhappy event which had so long excluded them from his knowledge: it was therefore natural in him to propose what plan he thought most conducive to their advantage, deferring an application to his Lordship till the arrival of the young ladies in England; when he doubted not they would sufficiently plead their own cause the moment they were presented to his sight.
Indeed the assistance of natural affection, continued Mr. Howard, would have been, I am persuaded, hardly necessary to subdue his Lordship's feelings on this occasion; however irritated they might prove, a heart like Lord Belmont's could not have beheld unmoved, two lovely young women, blest with every amiable quality of the heart and every insinuating grace of the form, kneeling

at his feet for favour; and I am convinced when your Ladyship has once seen them, an instantaneous prepossession must inevitably follow.
His Lordship, had he
