be better than rushing
headlong to destruction at that d-d club: so farewell to it and you.
Whenever I meet you on honest ground or under a Christian roof, I shall
be glad to see you; but never more shall you entice me to that devil's
den!"

'This was shameful language, but I shook hands with him, and we parted.
He kept his word; and from that time forward he has been a pattern of
propriety, as far as I can tell; but till lately I have not had very much
to do with him. He occasionally sought my company, but as frequently
shrunk from it, fearing lest I should wile him back to destruction, and I
found his not very entertaining, especially as he sometimes attempted to
awaken my conscience and draw me from the perdition he considered himself
to have escaped; but when I did happen to meet him, I seldom failed to
ask after the progress of his matrimonial efforts and researches, and, in
general, he could give me but a poor account. The mothers were repelled
by his empty coffers and his reputation for gambling, and the daughters
by his cloudy brow and melancholy temper--besides, he didn't understand
them; he wanted the spirit and assurance to carry his point.

'I left him at it when I went to the continent; and on my return, at the
year's end, I found him still a disconsolate bachelor--though, certainly,
looking somewhat less like an unblest exile from the tomb than before.
The young ladies had ceased to be afraid of him, and were beginning to
think him quite interesting; but the mammas were still unrelenting. It
was about this time, Helen, that my good angel brought me into
conjunction with you; and then I had eyes and ears for nobody else. But,
meantime, Lowborough became acquainted with our charming friend, Miss
Wilmot--through the intervention of his good angel, no doubt he would
tell you, though he did not dare to fix his hopes on one so courted and
admired, till after they were brought into closer contact here at
Staningley, and she, in the absence of her other admirers, indubitably
courted his notice and held out every encouragement to his timid
advances. Then, indeed, he began to hope for a dawn of brighter days;
and if, for a while, I darkened his prospects by standing between him and
his sun--and so nearly plunged him again into the abyss of despair--it
only intensified his ardour and strengthened his hopes when I chose to
abandon the field in the pursuit of a brighter treasure. In a word, as I
told you, he is