shall be as well convinced of her safety as if she were under my own
roof.-But can your Ladyship be serious in proposing to introduce her
to the gaieties of a London life? Permit me to ask, for what end,
or for what purpose? A youthful mind is seldom totally free from
ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to
diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment. I apprehend nothing
more than too much raising her hopes and her views, which the natural
vivacity of her disposition would render but too easy to effect.
The town-acquaintance of Mrs. Mirvan are all in the circle of high
life; this artless young creature, with too much beauty to escape
notice, has too much sensibility to be indifferent to it; but she
has too little wealth to be sought with propriety by men of the
fashionable world.


Consider Madam, the peculiar cruelty of her situation. Only child of
a wealthy Baronet, whose person she has never seen, whose character
she has reason to abhor, and whose name she is forbidden to claim;
entitled as she is to lawfully inherit his fortune and estate, is
there any probability that he will properly own her? And while he
continues to persevere in disavowing his marriage with Miss Evelyn,
she shall never, at the expense of her mother's honour, receive a
part of her right as the donation of his bounty.


And as to Mr. Evelyn's estate, I have no doubt but that Madame Duval
and her relations will dispose of it among themselves.


It seems, therefore, as if this deserted child, though legally heiress