fortunes,
and her anxieties and inquiries respecting him have been endless and
incessant. These, however, have been fruitless. Welbeck, knowing these
circumstances, and being desirous of substituting a girl whom he had
moulded for his purpose, in place of the lost youth, in the affections
of the lady while living, and in her testament when dead, endeavoured to
persuade her that the youth had died in some foreign country. For this
end, Mervyn was to personate a kinsman of Welbeck who had just arrived
from Europe, and who had been a witness of her nephew's death. A story
was, no doubt, to be contrived, where truth should be copied with the
most exquisite dexterity; and, the lady being prevailed upon to believe
the story, the way was cleared for accomplishing the remainder of the
plot.

"In due time, and after the lady's mind had been artfully prepared by
Welbeck, the pupil made his appearance; and, in a conversation full of
studied ambiguities, assured the lady that her nephew was dead. For the
present he declined relating the particulars of his death, and displayed
a constancy and intrepidity in resisting her entreaties that would have
been admirable in a better cause. Before she had time to fathom this
painful mystery, Welbeck's frauds were in danger of detection, and he
and his pupil suddenly disappeared.

"While the plot was going forward, there occurred an incident which the
plotters had not foreseen or precluded, and which possibly might have
created some confusion or impediment in their designs. A bundle was
found one night in the street, consisting of some coarse clothes, and
containing, in the midst of it, the miniature portrait of Mrs.
Wentworth's nephew. It fell into the hands of one of that lady's
friends, who immediately despatched the bundle to her. Mervyn, in his
interview with this lady, spied the portrait on the mantel-piece. Led by
some freak of fancy, or some web of artifice, he introduced the talk
respecting her nephew, by boldly claiming it as his; but, when the mode
in which it had been found was mentioned, he was disconcerted and
confounded, and precipitately withdrew.

"This conduct, and the subsequent flight of the lad, afforded ground
enough to question the truth of his intelligence respecting her nephew;
but it has since been confuted, in a letter just received from her
brother in England. In this letter, she is informed that her nephew had
been seen by one who knew him well, in Charleston;