ut be the occasion of so much
vexation and trouble! Kiss the dear children for me.

Your affectionate mother,

C. DE COURCY.

XIV

MR. DE COURCY TO SIR REGINALD

Churchhill.

My dear Sir,--I have this moment received your letter, which has given
me more astonishment than I ever felt before. I am to thank my sister,
I suppose, for having represented me in such a light as to injure me
in your opinion, and give you all this alarm. I know not why she should
choose to make herself and her family uneasy by apprehending an
event which no one but herself, I can affirm, would ever have thought
possible. To impute such a design to Lady Susan would be taking from her
every claim to that excellent understanding which her bitterest enemies
have never denied her; and equally low must sink my pretensions to
common sense if I am suspected of matrimonial views in my behaviour
to her. Our difference of age must be an insuperable objection, and I
entreat you, my dear father, to quiet your mind, and no longer harbour
a suspicion which cannot be more injurious to your own peace than to our
understandings. I can have no other view in remaining with Lady Susan,
than to enjoy for a short time (as you have yourself expressed it) the
conversation of a woman of high intellectual powers. If Mrs. Vernon
would allow something to my affection for herself and her husband in the
length of my visit, she would do more justice to us all; but my sister
is unhappily prejudiced beyond the hope of conviction against Lady
Susan. From an attachment to her husband, which in itself does honour to
both, she cannot forgive the endeavours at preventing their union, which
have been attributed to selfishness in Lady Susan; but in this case, as
well as in many others, the world has most grossly injured that lady, by
supposing the worst where the motives of her conduct have been doubtful.
Lady Susan had heard something so materially to the disadvantage of my
sister as to persuade her that the happiness of Mr. Vernon, to whom she
was always much attached, would be wholly destroyed by the marriage. And
this circumstance, while it explains the true motives of Lady Susan's
conduct, and removes all the blame which has been so lavished on her,
may also convince us how little the general report of anyone ought to
be credited; since no character, however upright, can escape the
malevolence of slander. If my sister, in the security of retirement,
with as li