O, Charlotte!  Dear Lady G——!  Hitherto, it is in your power, to make every future day, worthy of this!—­’Have your mother, your noble mother, in your memory, my dear:’  and give credit to the approbation of such a brother.

I should have told you, that my cousins Reeves came about two, and were received with the utmost politeness by every body.

Sir Charles was called out just before dinner; and returned introducing a young gentleman, dressed as if for the day—­This is an earlier favour, than I had hoped for, said Sir Charles; and leading him to Lady G——.  This, sir, is the queen of the day.  My dear Lady G——­, welcome (the house is yours—­welcome) the man I love:  welcome my Beauchamp.

Every one, except Emily and me, crowded about Mr. Beauchamp, as Sir Charles’s avowedly beloved friend, and bid him cordially welcome:  Sir Charles presenting him to each by name.

Then leading him to me—­I am half ashamed, Lucy, to repeat—­But take it as he spoke it—­Revere, said he, my dear friend, that excellent young lady:  but let not your admiration stop at her face and person:  she has a mind as exalted, my Beauchamp, as your own:  Miss Byron, in honour to my sister, and of us all, has gilded this day by her presence.

Mr. Beauchamp approached me with polite respect.  The lady whom Sir Charles Grandison admires, as he does you, must be the first of women.

I might have said, that he, who was so eminently distinguished as the friend of Sir Charles Grandison, must be a most valuable man:  but my spirits were not high.  I courtesied to his compliment; and was silent.

Sir Charles presented Emily to him.—­My Emily, Beauchamp.  I hope to live to see her happily married.  The man whose heart is but half so worthy as hers, must be an excellent man.

Modesty might look up, and be sensible to compliments from the lips of such a man.  Emily looked at me with pleasure, as if she had said, Do you hear, madam, what a fine thing my guardian has said of me?

Sir Charles asked Mr. Beauchamp, how he stood with my Lady Beauchamp?

Very well, answered he.  After such an introduction as you had given me to her, I must have been to blame, had I not.  She is my father’s wife:  I must respect her, were she ever so unkind to me:  she is not without good qualities.  Were every family so happy as to have Sir Charles Grandison for a mediator when misunderstandings happened, there would be very few lasting differences among relations.  My father and mother tell me, that they never sit down to table together, but they bless you:  and to me they have talked of nobody else:  but Lady Beauchamp depends upon your promise of making her acquainted with the ladies of your family.

My sisters, and their lords, will do honour to my promise in my absence.  Lady L——­, Lady G——­, let me recommend to you Lady Beauchamp as more than a common visiting acquaintance.  Do you, sir, to Mr. Beauchamp, see it cultivated.