I have debated the matter, my dear Lady L——­, with myself.  I am sorry it has admitted of debate:  so excellent a creature!  Such an honour to her sex!  So nobly sincere!  So pious!—­But I will confess the truth:  I have called upon justice to support me in my determination:  I have supposed myself in her situation, her unhappy malady excepted:  I have supposed her in mine:  and ought I then to have hesitated to which to give the preference?—­Yet—­

What yet, most frank, and most generous of women? said Lady L——­, clasping her arms about me:  what yet—­

Why, yet-Ah, ladies—­Why, yet, I have many a pang, many a twitch, as I may call it!—­Why is your brother so tender-hearted, so modest, so faultless!—­Why did he not insult me with his pity?  Why does he on every occasion shew a tenderness for me, that is more affecting than pity?  And why does he give me a consequence that exalts, while it depresses me?

I turned my head aside to hide my emotion—­Lady G——­ snatched my handkerchief from me; and wiped away a starting tear; and called me by very tender names.

Am I dear, continued I, to the heart of such a man?  You think I am.  Allow me to say, that he is indeed dear to mine:  yet I have not a wish but for his happiness, whatever becomes of me.

Emily appeared at the door—­May I come in, ladies?—­I will come in!—­My dear Miss Byron affected!  My dear Miss Byron in tears!

Her pity, without knowing the cause, sprung to her eyes.  She took my hand in both hers, and repeatedly kissed it!—­My guardian asks for you.  O with what tenderness of voice—­Where is your Miss Byron, love?  He calls every one by gentle names, when he speaks of you—­His voice then is the voice of love—­Love, said he to me!  Through you, madam, he will love his ward—­And on your love will I build all my merit.  But you sigh, dear Miss Byron! you sigh—­Forgive your prating girl!—­You must not be grieved.

I embraced her.  Grief, my dear, reaches not my heart at this time.  It is the merit of your guardian that affects me.

God bless you, madam, for your gratitude to my guardian!

A Clementina and a Harriet! said Lady L——­, two women so excellent! 
What a fate is his!  How must his heart be divided!

Divided, say you, Lady L——! resumed Lady G——.  The man who loves virtue, for virtue’s sake, loves it wherever he finds it:  Such a man may distinguish more virtuous women than one:  and if he be of a gentle and beneficent nature, there will be tenderness in his distinction to every one, varying only according to the difference of circumstance and situation.

Let me embrace you, my Charlotte! resumed Lady L——. for that thought.  Don’t let me hear, for a month to come, one word from the same lips, that may be unworthy of it.

You have Lord G——­ in your head, Lady L——­:  but never mind us.  He must now and then be made to look about him.  I’ll take care to keep up my consequence with him, never fear:  nor shall he have reason to doubt the virtue of his wife.