praise of them."


"Your sweet goddaughter. I almost feel as if I had spoken in
disparagement of her, but I meant no such thing, dear girl. It would
be hard to find a fault in her, since the childish love of admiration
was subdued. She is so solid and steady, as to be very valuable with
the younger ones, and is fast growing so lovely, that I wish you
could behold her. I do not see any vanity, but there lies my dread,
not of beauty--vanity, but that she will find temptation in the being
everywhere liked and sought after. As to Margaret, my precious
companion and friend, you have heard enough of her to know her, and,
as to telling you what she is like, I could as soon set about
describing her papa. When I thought of not being spared to them this
time, it was happiness indeed to think of her at their head, fit to
be his companion, with so much of his own talent as to be more up to
conversation with him, than he could ever have found his stupid old
Maggie. It was rather a trial of her discretion to have Mr.
Ernescliffe here while I was upstairs, and very well she seems to
have come out of it. Poor Richard's last disappointment is still our
chief trouble. He has been working hard with a tutor all through the
vacation, and has not even come home to see his new sister, on his
way to Oxford. He had made a resolution that he would not come to us
till he had passed, and his father thought it best that it should be
kept. I hope he will succeed next time, but his nervousness renders
it still more doubtful. With him it is the very reverse of Norman.
He suffers too much for want of commendation, and I cannot wonder at
it, when I see how much each failure vexes his father, and Richard
little knows how precious is our perfect confidence in him, how much
more valuable than any honours he could earn. You would be amused to