affair without the concurrence of your father, and endeavour, by all fair
and honourable means, to vanquish the prejudices, and obtain the consent
of her uncle; the rest we must leave to the dispensation of Providence.'

"The squire promised, in the most solemn and fervent manner, to obey all
her injunctions, as the last dictates of a parent whom he should never
cease to honour. Then she favoured them both with a great deal of
salutary advice touching their conduct before and after marriage, and
presented him with a ring as a memorial of her affection, at the same
time he pulled another off his finger, and made a tender of it as a
pledge of his love to Aurelia, whom her mother permitted to receive this
token. Finally, he took a last farewell of the good matron, and returned
to his father with the particulars of this interview.

"In two days Mrs. Darnel departed this life, and Aurelia was removed to
the house of a relation, where her grief had like to have proved fatal to
her constitution.

"In the meantime, the mother was no sooner committed to the earth, than
Mr. Greaves, mindful of her exhortations, began to take measures for a
reconciliation with the guardian. He engaged several gentlemen to
interpose their good offices, but they always met with the most
mortifying repulse, and at last Anthony Darnel declared that his hatred
to the house of Greaves was hereditary, habitual, and unconquerable. He
swore he would spend his heart's blood to perpetuate the quarrel, and
that, sooner than his niece should match with young Launcelot, he would
sacrifice her with his own hand.

"The young gentleman, finding his prejudice so rancorous and invincible,
left off making any further advances, and, since he found it impossible