r
distinctions than such as can be fairly supported.

"I commenced with hoping her determination to reject the hand of Frederick
was not an unalterable one. (Yes, I called him Frederick, what I never did
out of my own family before in my life.) There was a considerable tremor
in the voice of Miss Moseley, as she replied, 'I now perceive, when too
late, that my indiscretion has given reason to my friends to think that I
have entertained intentions towards his grace, of which I entreat you to
believe me, Lady Harriet, I am innocent. Indeed--indeed, as anything more
than an agreeable acquaintance I have never allowed myself to think of
your brother:' and from my soul I believe her. We continued our
conversation for half an hour longer, and such was the ingenuousness,
delicacy, and high religious feeling displayed by the charming girl, that
if I entered the room with a spark of regret that I was compelled to
solicit another to favor my brother's love, I left it with a feeling that
my efforts had been unsuccessful. Yes! thou peerless sister of the more
peerless Pendennyss! I once thought of your ladyship as a wife for
Derwent--"

A glass of water was necessary to enable the reader to clear her voice,
which grew husky from speaking so long.

"But I now openly avow, neither your birth, your hundred thousand pounds,
nor your merit, would put you on a footing, in my estimation, with my
Emily. You may form some idea of her power to captivate, and of her
indifference to her conquests, when I mention that she once refused--but I
forget, you don't know him, and therefore cannot be a judge. The thing is
finally decided, and we shortly go into Westmoreland, and next week, the
Moseleys return to Northamptonshire. I don't know when I shall be able to
visit you, and think I may _now_ safely invite you to Denbigh Castle,
although a month ago I might have hesitated. Love to the earl, and kind
assurance to yourself of unalterable regard.

"HARRIET DENBIGH."

"P.S. I believe I forgot to mention that Mrs. Moseley, a sister of Lord
Chatterton, has gone to Portugal, and that the peer himself is to go into
the country with us: there is, I suppose, a fellow-feeling between _them_
just now, though I do not think Chatterton looks so very miserable as he
might. Adieu."

On ending this second epistle the same silence which had succeeded the
reading of the first prevailed, until the lady with an arch expression,
interrupted it by saying,

"