I wished for a copy of this part of Sir Charles’s letter, for the sake of my aunt, whose delicacy would, I thought, be charmed with” it. He has been so good as to say, he would transcribe it for me. I will inclose it, Lucy; and you will read it here:

“I cannot, my lord, (said Sir Charles,) engage, that the lady will comply with the proposal I shall take the liberty to make to her mother and her. She is not more than three or four and thirty: she is handsome: she has a fine understanding: she is brought up an ceconomist: she is a woman of good family: she has not, however, though born to happier prospects, a fortune worthy of your lord-ship’s acceptance. Whatever that is, you will per — haps choose to give it to her family.

With all my heart and soul, nephew, But do you say, she is handsome? Do you say, she is of family? And has she so many good qualities? Ah, nephew, she won’t have me, 1 doubt. And is she not too young, Sir Charles, to think of such a poor decrepit soul as I am?

All I can say to this, my lord, is, that the propo-sals on your part must be the more generous

I will leave all those matters to you, kinsman

This, my lord, I will take upon me to answer for, that she is a woman of principle: she will not give your lordship her hand, if she thinks she cannot make you a wife worthy of your utmost kindness: and now, my lord, I will tell you who she is, that you may make what other enquiries you think proper.

And then I named her to him, and gave him pretty near the account of the family, and the cir-cumstances and affairs of it, that I shall by-and-by give you; though you are not quite a stranger to the unhappy case.

My lord was in raptures: he knew something, he said, of the lady’s father, and enough of the family, by hearsay, to confirm all I had said of them; and besought me to do my utmost to bring the affair to a speedy conclusion.

Sir Thomas Mansfield was a very good man; and much respected in his neighbourhood. He was once possessed of a large estate; but his father left him involved in a law-suit to support his title to more than one half of it.