a detestable cordiality
there is no escaping from. Oh, John, John! when at ten years of age you
made the banker's son at Northampton hold your stirrup as you mounted
your pony, I never thought I should have this reproach to make you.

'The little fiend who calls himself Corny something, also mentions your
continued familiarity with the young woman I spoke of before. What her
intentions are is perfectly clear; and should she accomplish her object
your position in society and future fortune might possibly procure her
large damages; but pause, my dear boy, before you go any further. I do
not speak of the moral features of the case, for you are of an age to
judge of them yourself; but think, I beseech you, of the difficulties it
will throw around your path in life, and the obstacles it will oppose to
your success. There is poor Lord Henry Effingham; and since that foolish
business with the clergyman's wife or daughter, where somebody went mad,
and some one else drowned or shot himself, they have never given him any
appointment whatever. The world is a frightful and unforgiving thing, as
poor Lord Henry knows; therefore beware!

'The more I think of it, the more strongly do I feel the force of
my first impressions respecting Ireland; and were it not that we so
constantly hear of battles and bloodshed in the Peninsula, I should even
prefer your being there. There would seem to be an unhappy destiny over
everything belonging to me. My poor dear father, the admiral, had a
life of hardship, almost unrewarded. For eleven years he commanded a
guardship in the Nore; many a night have I seen him, when I was a little
girl, come home dripping with wet, and perfectly insensible from the
stimulants he was obliged to resort to, and be carried in that state to
his bed; and after all this he didn't get his blue ribbon till he was
near sixty.

'De Vere is constantly with us, and is, I remark, attentive to your
cousin Julia. This is not of so much consequence, as I hear that her
Chancery suit is taking an unhappy turn; should it be otherwise, your
interests will, of course, be looked to. De Vere is most amusing, and
has a great deal of wit; but for him and the Count we should be quite
dreary, as the season is over, and we can't leave town for at least
three weeks. [The epistle concluded with a general summing up of its
contents, and an affectionate entreaty to bear in mind her caution
regarding the Rooneys.] Once more, my dear boy, rememb