ould coldly repel him,
and, with my love of truth, tell him without ceremony, that I would
keep up no commerce with him; but as this is impossible, I must treat
him with courtesy, endeavour to lay the evil spirit in him by delicacy
and good-will, and afterwards, as imperceptibly as possible, withdraw
from his pernicious influence."

The other daughters crowded round the mother and embraced her, as if to
console her. "If I had not you!" sighed the Baroness: "if it were not
that I may calculate on the assistance of our generous friend, the
visit of this godless man would make me still more uneasy."

"Who is he, after all?" asked the Baron.

"A man," answered the mother, "who, at an early age, ranged about in the
world, and among its snares; who, taught by his own heart, vilely
ridicules and persecutes all that bears the name of charity, meekness
and piety, a gross self-seeker, incapable of loving any one, and whom
the Holy, the Unearthly, wherever he perceives it, wherever he does but
catch a glimpse of it, transports into a disgusting rage, which then
inspires him with that frivolous wit, which we all so deeply despise.
It was the misfortune of my life, that he formed an acquaintance with
my good departed husband, who took a liking to him, and in many gloomy
hours abandoned himself to his society and his melancholy philosophy."

"You are painting, honoured madam," said the officer, "one of those
characters, which, heaven be thanked, have already grown more rare."

"A profligacy," said the Baron, "which rails at every thing spiritual,
being grounded on self-contempt. You however, as well as all of us, are
raised above this misery."

"His moderate fortune," proceeded the mother, "was soon spent; he then
quitted Europe, roamed about among heaven knows what savage hordes, and
has now returned, I hear, as the agent of an immensely rich American,
who will follow him in the course of a year, and who has taken the
fancy of buying several estates in our neighbourhood, to form one large
domain."

Dorothea still persisted in her opinion, that people might and ought to
avoid so bad a man, and that she herself would engage to make the house
unapproachable to him, if her mother would give her the requisite
powers for the purpose; the Baroness however grew displeased, and
forbad the name of the peace-breaker to be mentioned that day any more.
The carriages now drew up, the family meaning to return to their
country-seat in the n