.

The daughters of parchment rallied him concerning Miss Clare Forey. His
hourly letters to Raynham, and silence as to everything and everybody
there, his nervousness, and unwonted propensity to sudden inflammation
of the cheeks, were set down for sure signs of the passion. Miss Letitia
Thompson, the pretty and least parchmenty one, destined by her Papa for
the heir of Raynham, and perfectly aware of her brilliant future, up
to which she had, since Ripton's departure, dressed and grimaced, and
studied cadences (the latter with such success, though not yet
fifteen, that she languished to her maid, and melted the small factotum
footman)--Miss Letty, whose insatiable thirst for intimations about the
young heir Ripton could not satisfy, tormented him daily in revenge,
and once, quite unconsciously, gave the lad a fearful turn; for after
dinner, when Mr. Thompson read the paper by the fire, preparatory to
sleeping at his accustomed post, and Mama Thompson and her submissive
female brood sat tasking the swift intricacies of the needle, and
emulating them with the tongue, Miss Letty stole behind Ripton's chair,
and introduced between him and his book the Latin initial letter, large
and illuminated, of the theme she supposed to be absorbing him, as
it did herself. The unexpected vision of this accusing Captain of the
Alphabet, this resplendent and haunting A. fronting him bodily, threw
Ripton straight back in his chair, while Guilt, with her ancient
indecision what colours to assume on detection, flew from red to white,
from white to red, across his fallen chaps. Letty laughed triumphantly.
Amor, the word she had in mind, certainly has a connection with Arson.

But the delivery of a letter into Master Ripton's hands, furnished her
with other and likelier appearances to study. For scarce had Ripton
plunged his head into the missive than he gave way to violent
transports, such as the healthy-minded little damsel, for all her
languishing cadences, deemed she really could express were a downright
declaration to be made to her. The boy did not stop at table. Quickly
recollecting the presence of his family, he rushed to his own room. And
now the girl's ingenuity was taxed to gain possession of that letter.
She succeeded, of course, she being a huntress with few scruples and the
game unguarded. With the eyes of amazement she read this foreign matter:

"Dear Ripton,--If Tom had been committed I would have shot old Blaize.
Do you kno