A word to you, Darcey.—­Surely you are never serious in the ridiculous design.—­Not offer yourself to Miss Warley, whilst she continues in that neighbourhood?—­the very spot on which you ought to secure her,—­unless you think all the young fellows who visit at the Abbey are blind, except yourself.—­Why, you are jealous already;—­jealous of Edmund.—­Perhaps even I may become one of your tormentors.—­If I like her I shall as certainly tell her so, as that my name is

MOLESWORTH.

[Here two Letters are omitted, one from Lady MARY to Miss WARLEY,—­and one from Miss WARLEY to Lady MARY.]

LETTER VIII.

Miss WARLEY to Lady MARY SUTTON.

From Mr. Jenkings’s.

Ah! my dear Lady, how kind,—­how inexpressibly kind, to promise I shall one day know what has put an end to the intimacy between the two Ladies I so much revere.

To find your Ladyship has still a high opinion of Lady Powis, has filled me with pleasure.—­Fear of the reverse often threw a damp on my heart, whilst receiving the most tender caresses.—­You bid me love her!—­You say I cannot love her too well!—­This is a command my heart springs forward to obey.

Unhappy family!—­What a loss does it sustain by the absence of Mr. Powis?—­No, I can never forgive the Lady who has occasioned this source of sorrow.—­Why is her name concealed?—­But what would it benefit me to come at a knowledge of it?

Pity Sir James should rather see such a son great than happy.—­Six thousand a year, yet covet a fortune twice as large!—­Love of riches makes strange wreck in the human heart.

Why did Mr. Powis leave his native country?—­The refusal of a Lady with whom he only sought an union in obedience to his father, could not greatly affect him.—­Was not such an overture without affection,—­without inclination,—­a blot in his fair character?—­Certainly it was.—­Your Ladyship seems to think Sir James only to blame.—­I dare not have presumed to offer my opinion, had you not often told me, it betray’d a meanness to hide our real sentiments, when call’d upon to declare them.

Lady Powis yesterday obliged me with a sight of several letters from her son.—­I am not mistress of a stile like his, or your Ladyship would have been spar’d numberless tedious moments.—­Such extraordinary deckings are seldom to be met with in common minds.

I told Lady Powis, last evening, that I should devote this day to my pen;—­so I shall not be sent for;—­a favour I am sure to have conferr’d if I am not at the Abbey soon after breakfast.—­Lord Darcey is frequently my escort.—­I am pleased to see that young nobleman regard Edmund as if of equal rank with himself.

Heavens! his Lordship is here!—­full-dressed, and just alighted from the coach,—­to fetch me, I fear.—­I shall know in a moment; Mrs. Jenkings is coming up.