senting him with a handsome douceur for his
trouble; but perceiving her to open the certificate, I watched her
countenance. She read and started. I turned away as if not observing
her. She then went up to her father and desired him to read it.

The old gentleman took out his glasses, and it was amusing to see the
way in which he looked at his daughter with his spectacles falling off
his nose. He then came up, and pointing to the certificate said, "Pray
how am I in future to address my daughter?"

"As Amy, I trust, Sir, unless you wish to scold her, and then you must
call her Lady Musgrave. I am, my dear Sir, as the certificate states,
Sir Alexander Musgrave, of Faristone, with a handsome property
descended to me. I did not know it till I arrived in London, and if I
concealed it from you till now, it was only that my Amy should have
the satisfaction of proving to me that she wedded me in pure
disinterestedness of affection."

"It was very, very kind of you, Alexander, to do as you have done, and
I thank you sincerely for it."

"And now, my dear Amy, you understand why I wished you to come with me
to Cumberland, that you may take possession of your future abode, and
assume that position in society which you will so much grace. I trust,
Sir," continued I, "that you will not part from us, and that one roof
will always cover us, as long as Heaven thinks fit to spare our
lives."

"May God bless you both," replied Mr. Trevannion, "I cannot part with
you, and must follow."

About half an hour after this, I requested Amy and Mr. Trevannion to
sit by me, as I had now another narrative to give them, which was an
explanation why and how it was that they found me in the position that
they had done; in short, what were the causes that induced me, and
afterwards my brother Philip, to quit our parental roof, and to come
to the resolution of fighting our own way in the world. It was as
follows:

"Sir Richard Musgrave, my father, married a young lady of high
connection, a Miss Arabella Johnson, and with her lived, I have every
reason to believe, a very happy life for nearly twenty-five years,
when it pleased God to summon her away. I have a good recollection of
my mother; for although I lived with my brother at a private tutor's,
about six miles off, I was continually at home, and she did not die
till I was nearly sixteen; and I can only say, that a more elegant,
amiable, and truly virtuous woman, as I believe, never existed. By