the moral conviction of the happiness
the original might have conferred on his life. Of that happiness his
pride had deprived him; nor did he repent, for he had deemed pride a
duty. But the mute likeness, buried in his grave,--that told the might
of the sacrifice he had made! Death removes all distinctions, and in the
coffin the Lord of Laughton might choose his partner.

When the will had been read, Mr. Parchmount produced two letters, one
addressed, in the hand of the deceased, to Mr. Vernon, the other in
the lawyer's own hand to Miss Clavering. The last enclosed the fragment
found on Sir Miles's table, and her own letter to Mainwaring, redirected
to her in Sir Miles's boldest and stateliest autograph. He had, no
doubt, meant to return it in the letter left uncompleted.

The letter to Vernon contained a copy of Lucretia's fatal epistle, and
the following lines to Vernon himself:--

MY DEAR CHARLES,--With much deliberation, and with natural reluctance to
reveal to you my niece's shame, I feel it my duty to transmit to you the
accompanying enclosure, copied from the original with my own hand, which
the task sullied.

I do so first, because otherwise you might, as I should have done
in your place, feel bound in honour to persist in the offer of your
hand,--feel bound the more, because Miss Clavering is not my heiress;
secondly, because had her attachment been stronger than her interest,
and she had refused your offer, you might still have deemed her hardly
and capriciously dealt with by me, and not only sought to augment her
portion, but have profaned the house of my ancestors by receiving
her there as an honoured and welcome relative and guest. Now, Charles
Vernon, I believe, to the utmost of my poor judgment, I have done what
is right and just. I have taken into consideration that this young
person has been brought up as a daughter of my house, and what the
daughters of my house have received, I bequeath her. I put aside, as far
as I can, all resentment of mere family pride; I show that I do so, when
I repair my harshness to my poor sister, and leave both her children the
same provision. And if you exceed what I have done for Lucretia, unless,
on more dispassionate consideration than I can give, you conscientiously
think me wrong, you insult my memory--and impugn my justice. Be it in
this as your conscience dictates; but I entreat, I adjure, I command,
at least that you never knowingly admit by a hearth, hitherto sa