Why fret yourself to a skeleton about an absence of eight days?—­How could you suppose she would let you go into Oxfordshire?—­Proper decorums must be observed by that sex.—­Are not those despicable who neglect them?—­What would you have said, had she taken Edmund with her?—­Don’t storm:—­on reflection you will find you had no greater right to expect that indulgence.

I have this morning had a letter from Dick Risby, that unfortunate, but worthy cousin of mine, just returned from the West-Indies to take on him the command of a company in Lord ——­’s regiment.  What a Father his!—­to abandon such a son.—­Leave him to the wide world at sixteen,—­without a shilling, only to gratify the pride and avarice of his serpent daughter,—­who had art sufficient to get this noble youth disinherited for her waddling brat, whose head was form’d large enough to contain his mother’s mischief and his own.—­In vain we attempted to set aside the will:—­my brother would not leave England whilst there remained the least hopes for poor Risby.

I always dreaded Dick’s going abroad, well knowing what a designing perfidious slut his sister was, from her very infancy.—­Her parents drew down a curse by their blind indulgence:—­even her nurse was charg’d not to contradict her; she was to have every thing for which she shewed the least inclination.

Lord Eggom and myself being near of an age with our cousins, were sometimes sent to play with them in their nursery; and, though boys of tolerable spirit, that vixen girl has so worried us by her tyrannic and impatient temper, that we have often petitioned, at our return home, to be put to bed supperless.—­If sweet-meats were to be divided, she would cry to have the whole; the same in regard to cards,—­shells,—­money, or whatever else was sent for our entertainment.—­When she has pinched us black and blue,—­a complaint to her mother has been made by Dick, who could not bear to see us so used, though he was obliged to take such treatment himself, the only redress we should receive was—­Poh! she is but a baby.—­I thought you had all known better than to take notice of what such a child as Lucy does—­Once, when this was said before her, me flew at me, and cry’d, I will pinch again, if I please;—­papa and mamma says I shall,—­and so does nurse; and I don’t mind what any body else says.—­I waited only for my revenge, till the two former withdrew; when sending the latter for a glass of water, I gave Miss such a glorious tacking, as I believe she has never tasted the like before or since.—­In the midst of the fray, I heard nurse running up, which made me hasten what I owed on my own account, to remind her of the favours she had conferred on Lord Eggom and her brother.—­If such a termagant in her infant state,—­judge what she must be at a time of life when her passions are in full vigour, and govern without controul!—­I have just shewn the method of rearing this diabolical plant, that you may not wonder at its productions.—­I shall see justice overtake her, notwithstanding the long strides she is making to escape.