fortin he would have, and the genteel line of life he was in, as well as on her own genteel connections, and the great bufinefs and confequance, and gentility of her fon Brownjohn, who fhe faid was look' dupon by people of the first quality, and dined very aften with my Lord and Sir Robart, and once had even paffed two days at the cauntry houfe of the Marquis of fhe did not know what I might think, or what fart of peaple I had been used to in America, but she could infarm me that few Englith young ladies of ever fo great fortin look'd higher than to Captain Darnell.b feized the only occafion fhe allowed me to tell her, that to fome of those who fo looked, I begged the would advife him to recommend himself, for that he was utterly difagreeable to me, and if inftead of being as her was, he could offer me a diadem, he would cftill be the object of my abhorrence and deteftation. i am fure it was not without confiderable efforts that a thefturdy widow checked the violent in clination fhe felt to ftrike me; for moments she even lifted up al fift, the apparent prowefs of which a butcher might have envied; and I faw that her fon, who had probably felt what it was capable of, turned of a more cadaverous hue as they uttered words which I only recollect as being words of reproach and menace. It would be endless were I to relate the whole converfation; I thought, during its progrefs, I difcovered that this woman acted from other motives than those which appeared on the furface; that she was aware her fon had ha zarded fo much, that he must either go through with the undertaking or be liable to a punishment which might coft him a great deal of that fortune she now fo proudly boafted of. After a moft wearifome and long dialogue, which would with more propriety be called a monologue (for her fon feldom was an interlocutor, and I spoke not) fhe told me, that though fuch condact as mine might well well difgaft and alarm any young man, and fright away love, yet fince her poor Dicky had still the weakness to feel an unfartinate affiction far me, fhe fhoud confidar harself as my mather. The odd manner in which the put ana almoft always in place of an o, and which I found was the dialect of the common people of a great part of Hampshire, where he had been brought up (not far from Portfmouth) had the effect, I hardly know why, of leffening my apprehenfions, by rendering her menaces ridiculous. thought it abject to fear fo ignorant and vulgar a woman, not fufficiently confidering that fuch only, and one who had befides a bad heart, would act as the acted; and that it is from ignorance combined with avarice and malevolence that there is always the most to apprehend. I “I believe she was now irritated by difcovering how little I feared her; for when fhe left the room, and told me the would fend her housemaid to fhew me to mine, The had the countenance and voice of a fury, fury, only that fhe was too plump for one of those monsters of poetical antiquity. The houfemaid came, and I followed her up an oaken staircase of great width, which was kept nicely waxed and rubbed, fo that it was like the fine mahogany of an indefatigable housewife, and it might have been fkaited upon with great fuccefs. The room I was fhewn into was in the fame ftyle as the reft of the house. My imagination could people it with nothing but ghofts, but of them I had no fear; my apprehenfions were much greater of Mafter Dicky Darnell, against whose intrufion 1 guarded with as much care as poffible. There were two doors in the room where I was left to my contemplations; one from a paffage by which I entered, the other I unbolted, and found it led into a clofet which was lined with arras, while the room adjoining, where the bed stood, was of dark wainscot in little pannels, and ornamented only with two full length pictures of fome former fquire and his fpoufe, poffeffors of the man fion, he in blue velvet with fkirts fticking out and a tie wig, his fair companion in a fine yellow robe, ornamented with jewels, and holding a very full blown red rofe to her bofom; they were fuperb, and probably it was expected they would impress me with veneration; but the only fentiment they infpired was fearful curiofity to know if they did not conceal behind them any door or entrance to the room. I thought, after the best examination I could make, that they were merely what they appeared, monuments of impotent vanity; but in regard to the arras in the clofet I was far less eafy. It was nailed down fo that I could not move it, nor could the wind perform any of thofe operations upon it which conftitute great part of the terror, in fome novels I had read at Upwood, little imagining then that I thould fo foon be come involved in adventures, and really be in one of thofe fituations which I have fometimes thought, rather ingenioufly imagined than really poffible.vin "After |