the latter part of this relation, Mr. Roatsley's countenance betrayed an agitation and astonishment that gave defiance, Mr. Howard said, to all powers of expression. His perplexity, after reading the letter, seemed but little abated. He was for some moments lost in thought; but at length breaking silence —all that I can possibly conceive, cried he, all that it is in my power to conjecture or comprehend in this affair, is, that my mother having been herself deceived by the injurious aspersions fabricated by the infamous woman Brumpton, which have been circulated in town with a credit that astonishes me, dreading the impetuosity of my temper, which might induce me to disoblige Lord Belmont and even to act in open defiance of a prohibition so

unjust, so inhuman, so wholly contrary to his natural character and benevolence, in consequence of her apprehension of creating that discordant dissention which ever leads to alienation of affection and often to a total breach of family unanimity, has determined on concealing carefully from my knowledge every circumstance of the application; yet I must acknowledge myself extremely displeased at a step, which has been the means of retaining me so long in uneasiness and uncertainty, and the more I consider the circumstances of the whole transaction, the more I am astonished and bewildered. To imagine that Lord Belmont, if properly apprized of the situation of his granddaughters, would allow an obstinate and hardened prejudice to arrest his justice, to influence his humanity, and even to banish natural affection from his bosom, is a supposition to which I cannot for an instant give credit; it is to

believe him scarce human, and devoid of the first and most powerful principle of our moral construction. My mother indeed labours under a cruel misrepresentation, to which she has unfortunately given implicit faith, and which it has never been in my power to confute; for more than once have the Miss Seymours, though their names and some vague reports concerning them were all I concluded she knew, been the subject of discussion and even of altercation between us. Violently prepossessed against them previous to their application, her accounts may have perhaps influenced Lord Belmont's determination, even without her intending or dreading the injustice which her representation of their characters may have occasioned.
This indeed in some measure accounts for her Ladyship's conduct, and even greatly exculpates her from the charge of selfish and interested views. While she regarded

us in the light of relations who were likely to reflect dishonour upon our family, and who could bring no consolation to the desolated bosom of our grandfather, it cannot be supposed that her mediation in our favour