cting not either her
peace of mind or my own duty:--'It is a grating thing, said she, for the
parents of a child, who delighted in her in all the time of her helpless
infancy, and throughout every stage of her childhood; and in every
part of her education to womanhood, because of the promises she gave of
proving the most grateful and dutiful of children; to find, just when
the time arrived which should crown their wishes, that child stand in
the way of her own happiness, and her parents' comfort,and, refusing an
excellent offer and noble settlements, give suspicions to her anxious
friends, that she would become the property of a vile rake and
libertine, who (be the occasion what it will) defies her family, and has
actually embrued his hands in her brother's blood.

'I have had a very hard time of it, said she, between your father and
you; for, seeing your dislike, I have more than once pleaded for you:
but all to no purpose. I am only treated as a too fond mother, who,
from motives of a blamable indulgence, encourage a child to stand in
opposition to a father's will. I am charged with dividing the family
into two parts; I and my youngest daughter standing against my husband,
his two brothers, my son, my eldest daughter, and my sister Hervey.
I have been told, that I must be convinced of the fitness as well
as advantage to the whole (your brother and Mr. Lovelace out of the
question) of carrying the contract with Mr. Solmes, on which so many
contracts depend, into execution.

'Your father's heart, I tell you once more, is in it: he has declared,
that he had rather have no daughter in you, than one he cannot dispose
of for your own good: especially if you have owned, that your heart is
free; and as the general good of his whole family is to be promoted
by your obedience. He has pleaded, poor man! that his frequent gouty
paroxysms (every fit more threatening than the former) give him no
extraordinary prospects, either of worldly happiness, or of long days:
and he hopes, that you, who have been supposed to have contributed
to the lengthening of your grandfather's life, will not, by your
disobedience, shorten your father's.'

This was a most affecting plea, my dear. I wept in silence upon it. I
could not speak to it. And my mother proceeded: 'What therefore can be
his motives, Clary Harlowe, in the earnest desire he has to see this
treaty perfected, but the welfare and aggrandizement of his family;
which already having fo