, is higher: it is, indeed, as high as I wish it to be. I then
declared, that if you would give me your Clementina, without insisting on
one hard, on one indispensable article, I would renounce her fortune, and
trust to my father's goodness to me for a provision. Shall my accession
to the estate of my ancestors alter me?--No, madam: I never yet made an
offer, that I receded from, the circumstances continuing the same. If,
in the article of residence, the marquis, and you, and Clementina, would
relax; I would acknowledge myself indebted to your goodness; but without
conditioning for it.

I told you, said she, that I put this question only for my own private
satisfaction: and I told you truth. I never will deceive or mislead you.
Whenever I speak to you, it shall be as if, even in your own concerns, I
spoke to a third person; and I shall not doubt but you will have the
generosity to advise, as such, though against yourself.

May I be enabled to act worthy of your good opinion! I, madam, look upon
myself as bound; you and yours are free.

What a pleasure is it, my dear Dr. Bartlett, to the proud heart of your
friend, that I could say this!--Had I sought, in pursuance of my own
inclinations, to engage the affections of the admirable Miss Byron, as I
might with honour have endeavoured to do, had not the woes of this noble
family, and the unhappy state of mind of their Clementina, so deeply
affected me; I might have involved myself, and that loveliest of women,
in difficulties which would have made such a heart as mine still more
unhappy than it is.

Let me know, my dear Dr. Bartlett, that Miss Byron is happy. I rejoice,
whatever be my own destiny, that I have not involved her in my
uncertainties. The Countess of D---- is a worthy woman: the earl, her
son, is a good young man: Miss Byron merits such a mother; the countess
such a daughter. How dear, how important, is her welfare to me!--You
know your Grandison, my good Dr. Bartlett. Her friendship I presumed to
ask: I dared not to wish to correspond with her. I rejoice, for her
sake, that I trusted not my heart with such a proposal. What
difficulties, my dear friend, have I had to encounter with!--God be
praised, that I have nothing, with regard to these two incomparable
women, to reproach myself with. I am persuaded that our prudence, if
rashly we throw not ourselves into difficulties, and if we will exert it,
and make a reliance on the proper assistance, is generally prop