being arranged with Mrs. Hambledon that she should herself
conduct Molly to us later on.

"We have been here about three weeks. Though persuaded by good Mr.
O'Mally that the waters would benefit my old bones, I was actuated, I
must confess, by another motive in seeking this Fashionable Resort. In
such a place as this, thronged as it is by all the Rank and Family of
England, one can at least know _who is who_, and I was not without
hopes that my nieces, with their faces, their name, and their
fortunes, would have the opportunity of contracting suitable
Alliances, and thus relieve me of a charge for which I am, I fear,
little fitted.

"But, alas! my dear Rupert, I was most woefully mistaken. Bath is
_distinctly not_ the place for two beautiful and unsophisticated
Heiresses, and I am certainly neither possessed of the Spirits, nor of
the Health to guard them from fortune-hunters and _needy nameless_
Adventurers. While it is my desire to impress upon you, and my niece
Sophia, that the conduct of these young ladies has been _quite_ beyond
reproach, I will not conceal from you that the attentions of a certain
person, of the name of _Smith_, known here, and a favorite in the
circles of frivolity and fashion as _Captain Jack_, have already made
Madeleine _conspicuous_, and although the dear girl conducts herself
with the utmost propriety, there is an air of _Romance_ and _mystery_
about the Young Man, not to speak of his unmistakable good looks,
which have determined me to remove her from his vicinity before her
Affections be _irreparably_ engaged. As for Molly, who is a thorough
O'Donoghue and the image of her grandmother, that celebrated
Murthering Moll (herself the toast of Bath in our young days), whose
elopement with the Marquis de Kermelegan, after he had killed an
English rival in a duel, was once a nine-days' wonder in this very
town, and of whom you must have heard, Mrs. Hambledon restored her to
my care only three days ago, and she has already twenty Beaux to her
String, though favouring _nobody_, I am bound to say, but her own
amusement. Yesterday she departed under Mrs. Hambledon's chaperonage,
in the Company of a dozen of the highest in rank here, on an
expedition to Clifton; the while my demure Madeleine spends the day at
the house of her dear friend Lady Maria Harewood, whither, I only
learnt upon her return at ten o'clock under his escort, _Captain
Jack_--in my days that sort of _captain_ would have been stro