He rubbed his hands, forgetting the gout; but was remembered by the pain, and cried, Oh !

But how did you manage it, kinsman ?—I never should have brought her to any thing-How did you manage it? Your lordship does not repent her going?

He swore, that it was the happiest event that could have befallen him. I hope, said he, she will go without wishing to see me-Whether she would whine, or curse, it would be impossible for me to see her, and be myself.

I believe she will go without desiring to see you; perhaps while I am here.

Thank God! a fair riddance! Thank God!-But is it possible, kinsman, that you could bring me off for 150l. a year? Tell me, truly.

It is and I tell your lordship, that it shall cost you no more, till you shall know how to value the comfort and happiness of your future life at more than 1007. a year: till then, the respect I pay to my mother's brother, and the regard I have for his honour, will make me cheerfully pay the 1007. a year in dispute, out of my own pocket.

He looked around him, his head turning as if on a pivot; and, at last, bursting out into tears and speech togetherAnd is it thus, is it thus, you subdue me? is it thus you convince me of my shameful littleness? I cannot bear it: all that this woman has done to me, is nothing to this. I can neither leave you, nor stay in your presence. Leave me, leave me, for six minutes only-Jesus! how shall I bear my own littleness?

I arose. One word, only, my lord. When I re-enter, say not a syllable more on this subject: let it pass as I put it. I would part with a greater sum than a hundred a year, for the satisfaction of giving to my uncle the tranquillity he has so long wanted in his own house, rather

than that a person, who has had a dependence upon him, should think herself entitled to complain of injustice from him.

He caught my hand, and would have met it with his lips. I withdrew it hastily, and retired; leaving him to recollect himself.

When I returned, he thrust into my hand a paper, and held it there, and swore that I should take it. If the wretch live ten years, nephew, said he, that will reimburse you; if she dies sooner, the difference is yours: and, for God's sake, for the sake of your mother's memory, don't despise me; that is all the favour I ask of you: no man on earth was ever so nobly overcome. By all that's good, you shall chalk me out my path! Blessed be my sister's memory, for giving me such a kinsman! The name of Grandison, that I ever disliked till now, is the first of names: and may it be perpetuated to the end of time!

He held the paper in my hand till he had done speaking. I then opened it, and found it to be a bank note of 1000l. I was earnest to return it; but he swore so vehemently, that he would have it so, that I, at last, acquiesced; but declared, that I would pay the whole annuity, as far as the sum went; and this, as well in justice to him, as to save him the pain of attending to an affair that must be grievous. to him. And I insisted upon giving him an acknowledgment under my hand, for that sum; and to be accountable to him for it, as his banker would, in the like case,

And thus ended this affair. The woman went away before me. She begged the favour, at the door, of one word with me. My lord started up, at her voice : his complexion varied: he whipt as nimbly behind the door, as if he had no gout in his foot. I will not see her, said he.

I stepped out. She complimented, thanked me, and wept; yet, in the height of her concern, would have uttered bitter things against my lord: but I stopped her mouth, by telling her, that I was to be her paymaster, quarterly, of the 250l. a year; and she turned her execrations against her lord, into blessings on me: but, after all, departed with reluctance.

Pride, and not tenderness, was visibly the occasion. Could she have secured her whole annuity, I have no doubt but she would have gratified that pride, by leaving her lord in triumph while she thought her departure would have given him regret; but to be dismissed, was a disgrace that affected her, and gave bitterness to her insolent spirit.

LETTER XI.

SIR CHARLES GRANDISON, TO DR. BARTLEett.

[In Continuation.]

My lord, though he had acquitted himself on the occasion, in such a manner as darted into my mind a little ray of my beloved mother's spirit, could not forbear giving way to his habitual littleness, when he was assured Giffard was out of the house. He called Halden to him, who entered with joy in his countenance, arising (as it came out) from the same occasion: and ordered him to make all his domestics happy on his deliverance, as he meanly called it: asking, if there were any body in the house who loved her? Not a single soul, said Halden; and I am sure, that I may

venture to congratulate your lordship, in the names of all your servants: for she was proud, imperious, and indeed a tyranness, to all beneath her.

I then, for the first time, pitied the woman; and should have pitied her still more, (true as this might, in some measure, be,) had she not gone away so amply rewarded: for, in this little family I looked forward to the family of the state; the sovereign and his ministers. How often has a minister, who has made a tyrannical use of power, (and even some who have not,) experienced, on his dismission, the like treatment, from those who, had they had his power, would perhaps have made as bad an use of it; who, in its plenitude, were fawning, creeping slaves, as these servants might be to this mistress of their lord! We read but of one grateful Cromwell, in all the superb train of Wolsey, when he had fallen into disgrace; and yet he had in it hundreds, some not ignobly born, and all of them less meanly descended than their magnificent master.

Halden addressed himself to me, as having been the means of making his lord and his whole household happy. Let the joy be moderate, Halden, said I: the poor woman might, possibly, have numbered among her well-wishers (she could not have disobliged every body) some of those, who now will be most forward to load her with obloquy. You must not make her too considerable: it is best for my lord, as well as for those that loved her not, to forget there ever was such a woman; except to avoid her faults, and to imitate her in what was commendable. She boasts of her honesty and management: my lord charges her not with infidelity of any kind.

Halden bowed, and withdrew.

My lord swore by his soul, that I had not my good name for nothing. Blessed, said he, be the name of the

Grandisons! This last plaudit gratified my pride; [I need not tell my Dr. Bartlett, that I have pride;] the more gratified it, as Lord W's animosity to my father made him not pleased with his name.

I did not think, when my lord began his story to me, that I should so soon have brought about a separation of guilt from guilt: but their mutual disgusts had prepared the way; resentment and pride, mingled with avarice on one side, and self-interestedness, founded (reasonably) on a stipulation made, and not complied with, on the other; were all that hindered it from taking place as from themselves. A mediator had nothing then to do, but to advise an act of justice, and so to gild it by a precedent of disinterestedness in himself, as should excite an emulation in a proud spirit, which, if not then, must, when passion had subsided, have arisen, to make all end as it ought.

When I found my lord's joy a little moderated, I drew my chair near him. Well, my lord, and now as to your hints of marriage

Blessed God!-Why, nephew, you overturn me with your generosity. Are you not my next of kin? And can you give your consent, were I to ask it, that I should marry?

I give you not only my consent, as you condescendingly phrase it, but my advice, to marry.

Good God! I could not, in the like case, do thus. But, nephew, I am not a young man.

The more need of a prudent, a discreet, a tender assistant. Your lordship hinted, that you liked not men servants about your person, in your illness. indisposed with the gout: servants will not

You are often

always be servants when they find themselves of use. Infirmity requires indulgence: in the very nature of the word and thing, in