I venture to call "the riches of the heart." Now, I pray you, my dear
Sir Miles, to gratify these two deserving young persons, and to suffer
Miss Lucretia incontinently to visit her sister. Counting on your
consent, thus boldly demanded, I have already prepared an apartment for
Miss Clavering; and Susan is busy in what, though I do not know much of
such feminine matters, the whole house declares to be a most beautiful
and fanciful toilet-cover, with roses and forget-me-nots cut out of
muslin, and two large silk tassels, which cost her three shillings and
fourpence. I cannot conclude without thanking you from my heart for your
noble kindness to young Ardworth. He is so full of ardour and spirit
that I remember, poor lad, when I left him, as I thought, hard at work on
that well-known problem of Euclid vulgarly called the Asses' Bridge,--I
found him describing a figure of 8 on the village pond, which was only
just frozen over! Poor lad! Heaven will take care of him, I know, as it
does of all who take no care of themselves. Ah, Sir Miles, if you could
but see Susan,--such a nurse, too, in illness! I have the honour to be,
Sir Miles,
Your most humble, poor servant, to command,
MATTHEW FIELDEN.

Sir Miles put this letter in his niece's hand, and said kindly, "Why not
have gone to see your sister before? I should not have been angry. Go,
my child, as soon as you like. To-morrow is Sunday,--no travelling that
day; but the next, the carriage shall be at your order."

Lucretia hesitated a moment. To leave Dalibard in sole possession of the
field, even for a few days, was a thought of alarm; but what evil could
he do in that time? And her pulse beat quickly: Mainwaring could come to
Southampton; she should see him again, after more than six weeks'
absence! She had so much to relate and to hear; she fancied his last