He is deaf to my entreaties, and wholly insensible to the voice of nature,

to compassion, to humanity, or even to that cool dispassioned reason which he recommends to me perpetually as the only safe and rational rule of conduct. I have attempted every human method of prevailing, I have exhausted every possible argument of persuasion, and said all that man can say where his last and dearest hopes of bliss are at stake; but oh! he is impenetrable! neither to be softened into pity nor influenced by justice; and he declares himself deliberately resolved on no account whatever either privately to see or publicly to acknowledge his grandchildren. He has even forcibly and absolutely protested —
That we never more must meet, said I steadily, while he hesitated to proceed. Well, my Lord, if such is his resolution, it is your Lordship's duty as well as mine implicitly to submit.
Submit! exclaimed he with warmth, throwing himself passionately at my feet.

No! never, never will I submit to a decision so barbarous, unreasonable, and inhuman. Lord Belmont undoubtedly has a right within certain bounds to prescribe to me my conduct, but I on my part possess one equally potent to expert from his justice reason and moderation. Wherever in those points he fails, so far he cancels the mutual bonds of obligation and duty that exist between us, and sets me free to act for myself. Had he prohibited a connection which could not have been considered as dishonourable, but merely as mortifying to his views and degrading to his dignity, even in this case had my heart been torn to death I scarce think I could have gratified my own wishes at the expence of torturing him with the disappointment of hopes, which however blindly, have invariably sought my happiness as their ultimate foundation, and I think, Miss Seymour, a short review of my past conduct may convince

you of the truth of this assertion; but when, without the slightest grounds for disapprobation, he objects, when he forbids an alliance where every gratification of reason and even of vanity present themselves; when fortune has made you at least my equal, and nature created you ah! how infinitely my superior, these obligations of duty end; Lord Belmont must thank himself for the step he obliges us to take; and we are no longer bound to gratify that caprice which rigorously demands the sacrifice of our whole happiness.
Ah! my Lord, cried I sorrowfully, all this is mere sophistry. The real state of the matter is quite different. Lord Belmont rejects me as his grandchild either by blood or alliance; and never