the burgh, occupied much of his time, which caused him to intrust the
management of his manufactory to a near relation, whose name was
D------, a young man of dissolute habits; but the Thane, seeing at
last, that by continuing that extravagant person in that charge, his
affairs would, in all probability, fall into a state of bankruptcy,
applied to the member of Parliament for that district to obtain a
situation for his relation in the civil department of the state. The
knight, whom it is here unnecessary to name, knowing how effectually the
Thane ruled the little burgh, applied in the proper quarter, and
actually obtained an appointment for D------ in the civil service of
the East India Company.

A respectable surgeon, whose residence was in a neighbouring village,
had a beautiful daughter named Emma, who had long been courted by
D------. Immediately before his departure to India, as a mark of mutual
affection, they exchanged miniatures, taken by an eminent artist in
Fife, and each set in a locket, for the purpose of having the object of
affection always in view.

The eyes of the old Thane were now turned towards Hindostan with much
anxiety; but his relation had not long arrived in that distant quarter
of the globe before he had the satisfaction of receiving a letter,
conveying the welcome intelligence of his having taken possession of his
new station in a large frontier town of the Company's dominions, and
that great emoluments were attached to the situation; which was
confirmed by several subsequent communications of the most gratifying
description to the old Thane, who took great pleasure in spreading the
news of the reformed habits and singular good fortune of his intended
heir. None of all his former acquaintances heard with such joy the
favourable report of the successful adventurer in the East, as did the