wants talents, I shall soon be released; after which I shall cut as splendid a figure as the best, and drink the pleasurable cup of life by perhaps flattering the foible of some fool who, like you, may pride himself upon virtues attributed to his ancestors, which they probably never possessed, while his portion shall be bitterness and misery: for, to be completely happy, he must possess your daughter, which he cannot do, having already married—her mother!'



NOT a single returning day had passed since the reconciliation between Charles and Sir Sidney but brought with it some new proof to the latter how egregiously he had been imposed upon by Gloss, and what noble firmness there must have been in the mind of our hero, who, though he panted for an explanation, scorned to capitulate for it dishonourably.
But what were Sir Sidney's feelings when he found that the knave who had thus practised upon his credulity, was the son of him who, by a long, cool, deliberate series of unexampled villany, had first ruined the peace, and then destroyed the life, of his friend and benefactor.
Oh how he was roused! His good sense, his friendship, his generosity, his every seeling seemed

insulted! And then the taunting impudence of that insinuation concerning his ancestry, which, as Sir Sidney indulged it, was surely a right and laudable pride; shewing by what means he had led him into a belief of the most gross and palpable falsity. He felt affronted and ashamed, and was at a loss to account for the motive that could have induced him to admit such a creature into his conversation. He alike reproached himself for having communicated with the viper, and thanked providence that had rescued him from its fangs.
Yet, what was all this compared to that thunderbolt which Gloss, in his wanton, wicked lust of mischief, had now hurled at these happy friends! The pestiferous breath, as it uttered the terrible words, affected the hearers like a contagion, and it is but too true that he had the insulting, triumphant, unmerciful pleasure to see both Charles and Sir Sidney appalled and confounded.
As the reader is of course full of anxious expectation, I shall now proceed to a nice investigation of all that train of circumstances which led Mr. Gloss to the knowledge of whom our hero had married.
The reader will instantly recollect that Sir Sidney,

at the latter end of the first book, speaks of a lady in the convent that Annette, when an infant, used to call Mamma Le Clerc. It will also easily be remembered that Mr.