children. At first, this was a pleasure; but somehow his
"benevolence," and "kindness," and "generosity," had been so talked
about, so eulogised, and he had been so seriously inconvenienced
by the waywardness of his nephews, the thoughtless pride of his
sister-in-law, the helplessness of his younger nieces, as to feel
seriously oppressed by his responsibility. And now the one who
had never given him aught but pleasure, seemed, according to his
daughter's representations, to be the cause of increased sorrow, the
destroyer of his dear child's happiness. What to do he could not tell.
His daughter, wrought upon by her own jealousy, had evinced, under
its influence, so much temper she had never displayed before, that it
seemed more than likely the cherished match would be broken off. His
high-minded niece saved him any farther anxiety as far as she was
concerned. She sent for and convinced him fully and entirely of her
total freedom from the base design imputed to her. "Was it likely,"
she said, "that I should reject the man I love lest I should drag him
into poverty, and plunge at once with one I do not care for into the
abyss I dread? This is the common sense view of the case; but there
is yet another. Is it to be borne that I would seek to rob _your_
child of her happiness? The supposition is an insult too gross to be
endured. I will leave my mother to-morrow. An old school-fellow, older
and more fortunate than myself, wished me to educate her little girl.
I had one or two strong objections to living in her house; but the
desire to be independent and away has overcome them." She then, with
many tears, entreated her uncle still to protect her mother; urged how
she had been sorely tried; and communicated fears, she had reason to
believe were too well founded, that her eldest brother, feeling the
reverse more than he could bear, had deserted from his regiment.

Charles Adams was deeply moved by the nobleness of his niece, and
reproved his daughter more harshly than he had ever done before, for
the feebleness that created so strong and unjust a passion. This had
the contrary effect to what he had hoped for: she did not hesitate to
say that her cousin had endeavoured to rob her both of the affection
of her lover and her father. The injured cousin left Repton bowed
beneath an accumulation of troubles, not one of which was of her
own creating, not one of which she deserved; and all springing from
the unproviding nature of him w