ed; 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 the apartments, and that, if I play my cards
well, he will be caught in his own trap, which, I presume, is as much as
to say that he came here with different intentions, and finding that he
cannot succeed, will secure his intended prize or victim by marriage
rather than not obtain her at all. Very flattering, truly! and this is
the man to whom my mother would induce me to confide my future
happiness--a man who, independent of his want of probity, is a fool into
the bargain. But the persecution on his part and on that of my mother
now becomes so annoying that I have requested Mrs. St. Felix to speak to
Mr. Sommerville the tutor, who, if he does his duty--and I have every
reason to believe that he will do so--will take some measures to remove
his pupil from our house.

"17th. Mrs. St. Felix and Mr. Sommerville have had a meeting. He
generally walks out every afternoon in the park; and Mrs. St. Felix and
he have already been introduced. She therefore went out and met him, and
after exchanging a few words she introduced the subject, stating that
she did so at my request. Mr. Sommerville, although he had not been
blind, had had no idea that things had proceeded so far; and he promised
Mrs. St. Felix that he would soon put an end to the persecution, or
remove him from our house. Janet has been here to-day, and I told her
what had passed; she very much approved of the steps which I had taken.
I must, however, say that latterly she has not appeared to take that
interest about you that she used to do, and I fear that your continual
absence is injurious to your prospects. She is very young and very
giddy, Tom. I wish she had been older, as, even when she is your wife,
she will require much looking after, and a firm hand to settle her down
into what a married woman in my opinion ought to be. Mr. Sommerville has
requested me to favor him with a few minutes' conversation; and as I
cannot do it