The taste of the present age seems to be dress; no wonder, therefore, that such a man as Sir Hargrave aims to excel in it.  What can be misbestowed by a man on his person who values it more than his mind?  But what a length I have run!

III.—­Miss Byron:  In Continuation

We found at home, waiting for Mr. Reeves’s return, Sir John Allestree, a worthy, sensible man, of plain and unaffected manners, upwards of fifty.

Mr. Reeves mentioning to him our past entertainment and company, Sir John gave us such an account of Sir Hargrave as let me know that he is a very dangerous and enterprising man.  He says that, laughing and light as he is in company, he is malicious, ill-natured, and designing, and sticks at nothing to carry a point on which he has once set his heart.  He has ruined, Sir John says, three young creatures already, under vows of marriage.

Could you have thought, my Lucy, that this laughing, fine-dressing man, could have been a man of malice, and of resentment, a cruel man, yet Sir John told two very bad stories of him.

But I had no need of these stories to determine me against receiving his addresses.  What I saw of him was sufficient.

IV.—­Miss Byron:  In Continuation

Wednesday, February 8. Sir Hargrave came before six o’clock.  He was richly dressed.  He asked for my cousin Reeves, I was in my chamber, writing.

He excused himself for coming so early on the score of his impatience.

Shall I give you, from my cousins, an account of the conversation before I went down?  You know Mrs. Reeves is a nice observer.

He had had, he told my cousins, a most uneasy time of it, ever since he saw me.  He never saw a woman before whom he could love as he loved me.  By his soul, he had no view but what was strictly honourable.  He gloried in the happy prospects before him, and hoped, as none of my little army of admirers had met encouragement from me, that he might be the happy man.

“I told you, Mr. Reeves,” said he, “that I will give you carte blanche as to settlements.  I will lay before you, or before any of Miss Byron’s friends, my rent-rolls.  There never was a better conditioned estate.  She shall live in town, or in the country, as she thinks fit.”

On a message that tea was near ready, I went down.

“Charming Miss Byron,” said he, addressing me with an air of kindness and freedom, “I hope you are all benignity and compassion.”  He then begged I would hear him relate the substance of what had passed between him and Mr. and Mrs. Reeves, referred to the declaration he had made, boasted of his violent passion, and besought my favour with the utmost earnestness.

As I could not think of encouraging his addresses, I thought it best to answer him without reserve.

“Sir Hargrave, you may expect nothing from me but the simplest truth.  I thank you, sir, for your good opinion of me, but I cannot encourage your addresses.”