pompey called twice a week at Crest House with
a supply of pine-apples or bonbons, and the Rev. Dr. Coronet bowed in
adoration. Lady Isabella St. Maurice gave a china cup to Mrs. Coronet,
and Lady Augusta a paper-cutter to Miss. The family was secured. All
discipline was immediately set at defiance, and the young Duke passed
the greater part of the half-year with his affectionate relations.
His Grace, charmed with the bonbons of his aunt and the kisses of his
cousins, which were even sweeter than the sugar-plums; delighted
with the pony of St. Maurice, which immediately became his own; and
inebriated by the attentions of his uncle,--who, at eight years of age,
treated him, as his Lordship styled it, 'like a man'--contrasted this
life of early excitement with what now appeared the gloom and the
restraint of Castle Dacre, and he soon entered into the conspiracy,
which had long been hatching, with genuine enthusiasm. He wrote to his
guardian, and obtained permission to spend his vacation with his uncle.
Thus, through the united indulgence of Dr. Coronet and Mr. Dacre, the
Duke of St. James became a member of the family of St. Maurice.

No sooner had Lord Fitz-pompey secured the affections of the ward than
he entirely changed his system towards the guardian. He wrote to
Mr. Dacre, and in a manner equally kind and dignified courted his
acquaintance. He dilated upon the extraordinary, though extremely
natural, affection which Lady Fitz-pompey entertained for the only
offspring of her beloved brother, upon the happiness which the young
Duke enjoyed with his cousins, upon the great and evident advantages
which his Grace would derive from companions of his own age, of the
singular friendship which he had already formed with St. Maurice; and
then, after paying Mr. Dacre many compliments upon the admirable manner
in which he had already fulfilled the duties of his important office,
and urging the lively satisfaction that a visit from their brother's
friend would confer both upon Lady Fitz-pompey and himself, he requested
permission for his nephew to renew the visit in which he had been 'so
happy!' The Duke seconded the Earl's diplomatic scrawl in the most
graceful round-text. The masterly intrigues of Lord Fitz-pompey,
assisted by Mrs. Dacre's illness, which daily increased, and which
rendered perfect quiet indispensable, were successful, and the young
Duke arrived at his twelfth year without revisiting Dacre. Every year,
however,