th to
Ellen; we grew up, my brothers went to Eton and college. I remained the
sole mistress of my father's establishment. Haughty by nature, and my
position, the power it gave me, the respect I received--and if you will
look at the miniature I enclose with this, I may, without vanity, add,
my beauty, made me imperious and tyrannical. I had many advantageous
offers, which I rejected, before I was twenty years of age. My power
with my father was unbounded, his infirmities kept him for a long time a
prisoner in his room, and my word was law to him, as well as to the
whole household. My sister Ellen, still a child, I treated with
harshness--first, I believe, because she promised to rival me in good
looks; and secondly, because my father showed greater affection towards
her than I liked. She was meek in temper, and never complained. Time
past--I refused many offers of marriage. I did not like to resign my
position for the authority of a husband, and I had reached my
twenty-fifth year, and my sister, Ellen, was a lovely girl of seventeen,
when it was fated that all should be changed.

"A Colonel Dempster came down with my eldest brother, who was a captain
in the same regiment of guards--a more prepossessing person I never
beheld, and for the first time I felt that I would with pleasure give up
being at the head of my father's establishment to follow the fortunes of
another man. If my predilection was so strong, I had no reason to
complain of want of attention on his part. He courted me in the most
obsequious manner, the style more suited to my haughty disposition, and
I at once gave way to the feelings with which he had inspired me. I
became fervently in love with him, and valued one of his smiles more
than an earthly crown. Two months passed, his original invitation had
been for one week, and he still remained. The affair was considered as
arranged, not only by myself, but by everybody else. My father,
satisfied that he was a gentleman by birth, and being able to support
himself by his own means in so expensive a regiment, made no inquiries,
leaving the matter to take its own course. But, although two months had
passed away, and his attentions to me were unremitting, Colonel Dempster
had made no proposal, which I ascribed to his awe of me, and his
diffidence as to his success. This rather pleased me than otherwise;
but my own feelings now made me wish for the affair to be decided, and I
gave him every opportu