atilda was
sent for and acknowledged by her father; for he meant to be the first to
lay before Lord Elmwood his pretensions as a suitor. But those
pretensions were founded on the vague hopes of a lover only; and Miss
Woodley, to whom he first declared them, said every thing possible to
convince him of their fallacy. As to the object of his passion, she was
not only insensible, but wholly inattentive to all that was said to her
on the subject. Lady Elmwood died without ever being disturbed with it;
for her daughter did not even remember his proposals so as to repeat
them again, and Miss Woodley thought it prudent to conceal from her
friend, every new incident which might give her cause for new anxieties.

When Sandford and the ladies left the north and came to Elmwood House,
so much were their thoughts employed with other ideas, that Lord
Margrave did not occupy a place; and during the whole time they had been
at their new abode, they had never once heard of him. He had,
nevertheless, his whole mind fixed upon Lady Matilda, and had placed
spies in the neighbourhood to inform him of every circumstance relating
to her situation. Having imbibed an aversion to matrimony, he heard with
but little regret, that there was no prospect of her ever becoming her
father's heir, while such an information gave him the hope of obtaining
her, upon the terms of a mistress.

Lord Elmwood's departure to town forwarded this hope, and flattering
himself that the humiliating state in which Matilda must feel herself in
the house of her father might gladly induce her to take shelter under
any other protection, he boldly advanced as soon as the Earl was gone,
to make such overture as his wishes and his vanity told him, could not
be rejected.

Inquiring for Miss Woodley, he easily gained admittance; but at the
sight of so much modesty and dignity in the person of Matilda, the
appearance of so much good will, and yet such circumspection in her
companion; and charmed at the good sense and proper spirit which were
always apparent in the manners of Sandford, he fell once more into the
despondency of never becoming to Lady Matilda any thing of more
importance to his reputation, than a husband.

Even that humble hope was sometimes denied him, while Sandford set forth
the impropriety of troubling Lord Elmwood on such a subject at present;
and while the Viscount's penetration, small as it was, discovered in his
fair one, more to discourage, than to fa