ter, returned she, should ever misbehave to her benefactor, I
will deny my relation to her.
You will soon have another letter from me, with an account of the success
of my visit to Sir Harry Beauchamp and his lady. We must have our
Beauchamp among us, my dear friend: I should rather say, you must among
you; for I shall not be long in England. He will supply to you, my dear
Dr. Bartlett, the absence (it will not, I hope, be a long one) of your
CHARLES GRANDISON.
Sir Charles, I remember, as the doctor read, mentions getting leave for
his Beauchamp to come over, who, he says, will supply his absence to him
--But, ah, Lucy! Who, let me have the boldness to ask, shall supply it
to your Harriet? Time, my dear, will do nothing for me, except I could
hear something very much amiss of this man.
I have a great suspicion, that the first part of the letter enclosed was
about me. The doctor looked so earnestly at me, when he skipt two sides
of it; and, as I thought, with so much compassion!--To be sure, it was
about me.
What would I give to know as much of his mind as Dr. Bartlett knows! If
I thought he pitied the poor Harriet--I should scorn myself. I am, I
will be, above his pity, Lucy. In this believe your
HARRIET BYRON.
LETTER VII
MISS BYRON.--IN CONTINUATION
SUNDAY NIGHT, APRIL 2.
Dr. Bartlett has received from Sir Charles an account of what passed last
Friday between him and Sir Harry and Lady Beauchamp. By the doctor's
allowance, I enclose it to you.
In this letter, Lucy, you will see him in a new light; and as a man whom
there is no resisting, when he resolves to carry a point. But it
absolutely convinces me, of what indeed I before suspected, that he has
not an high opinion of our sex in general: and this I will put down as a
blot in his character. He treats us, in Lady Beauchamp, as perverse
humoursome babies, loving power, yet not knowing how to use it. See him
so delicate in his behaviour and address to Miss Mansfield, and carry in
your thoughts his gaiety and adroit management to Lady Beauchamp, as in
this letter, and you will hardly think him the same man. Could he be
any thing to me, I should be more than half afraid of him: yet this may
be said in his behalf;--He but accommodates himself to the persons he has
to deal with:--He can be a man of gay wit, when he pleases to descend, as
indeed his sister Charlotte has as often found, as she has given occasion
for the exercise of that talen
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