good fun to be single again. By this, you may perceive that he
has entirely regained that chearful Gaiety, and sprightly Wit,
for which he was once so remarkable. When he first became
acquainted with Louisa which was little more than three years
ago, he was one of the most lively, the most agreable young Men
of the age--. I beleive you never yet heard the particulars of
his first acquaintance with her. It commenced at our cousin
Colonel Drummond's; at whose house in Cumberland he spent the
Christmas, in which he attained the age of two and twenty.
Louisa Burton was the Daughter of a distant Relation of Mrs.
Drummond, who dieing a few Months before in extreme poverty, left
his only Child then about eighteen to the protection of any of
his Relations who would protect her. Mrs. Drummond was the only
one who found herself so disposed--Louisa was therefore removed
from a miserable Cottage in Yorkshire to an elegant Mansion in
Cumberland, and from every pecuniary Distress that Poverty could
inflict, to every elegant Enjoyment that Money could purchase--.
Louisa was naturally ill-tempered and Cunning; but she had been
taught to disguise her real Disposition, under the appearance of
insinuating Sweetness, by a father who but too well knew, that to
be married, would be the only chance she would have of not being
starved, and who flattered himself that with such an extroidinary
share of personal beauty, joined to a gentleness of Manners, and
an engaging address, she might stand a good chance of pleasing
some young Man who might afford to marry a girl without a
Shilling. Louisa perfectly entered into her father's schemes and
was determined to forward them with all her care and attention.
By dint of Perseverance and Application, she had at length so
thoroughly disguised her natural disposition under the mask of
Innocence, and Softness, as to impose upon every one who had not