municate to me. I forgot for the moment Bessy and Bramble, thought
only of Janet, and put the letter to my lips as I walked away, that I
might go home and read it. I hurried past Bessy, who was in the
parlour, and went up the stairs into my bed-room, where I took my letter
out of my pocket and commenced it.

"MY DEAR TOM,--15th April.

"I shall begin a letter to you now, and fill it up as a sort of a
diary; as it is the best plan, I think, to narrate circumstances as
they actually take place. It is unpleasant to say anything against my
mother, the more so as I believe that she thinks she has been doing
right, and has my interest sincerely at heart: she appears to consider
that an alliance with people of rank cannot be purchased too dear, and
that every attempt is justifiable to secure for me such an advantage.
Little does she know me: if she forgets, I never shall, that I am the
daughter of a Greenwich pensioner, and never would ally myself with
those whose relations would look upon me as a disgrace to their
family. No, Tom; even if I were so heedless as to allow my affections
to be enthralled, I would at any sacrifice refuse to enter into a
family much beyond my condition. I have thought of this often, and I
confess that I am sometimes unhappy. I have been brought up and
educated above my situation in life, and I do not think I ever could
marry a person who was not more refined and educated than those who
are really and truly my equals. But as, at the same time, I never
will enter into a family who might look down upon my parentage, I
presume your little Virginia must remain unmarried. If so, I am
content--I have no wish to alter my present condition. I am happy and
respected; and with the exception of the trifling annoyances which we
all must expect and must submit to, I have no reason to be
dissatisfied; on the contrary, I have to be grateful for many
blessings, and I trust that I am so. My poor mother is the cause of
all my present vexations. She tells me that my beauty, as she is
partially pleased to call it, is sufficient for my aspiring to the
hand of a duke, and that it will be my own fault if I do not make a
high connection. Every night she has been overwhelming me with
alternate reproaches and entreaties to permit the attentions of the
gay gentleman who is now lodging at our house, stating that it was on
my account only that he took t