rights, I tell you; and let that satisfy you."

"I am glad of it. Poor fellow! Young, generous, disdaining obligation,
never knowing the want of money, how must he have felt on being left quite
destitute, penniless, running in arrear for absolute necessaries; in debt
to a good woman who lived by letting lodgings, and who dunned him, after
so long a delay, in so indirect and delicate a manner!--What must he have
suffered, accustomed to regard you as a father, and knowing you had no
personal calls for your large revenue, and being so solemnly enjoined by
you not to stir himself in any rational pleasure! for you would be always
ready to exceed your stated remittances, when there should be just
occasion. Poor fellow! my heart bleeds for him. But how long will it be
before he hears from you? His letter is dated seven weeks ago. It will be
another six or eight weeks before he receives an answer,--at least three
months in all; and during all this time he will be without money. But
perhaps he will receive it sooner."

My father frequently changed countenance, and showed great solicitude.
I did not wronder at this, as Risberg had always been loved as a son. A
little consideration, therefore, ought to have shown me the impropriety of
thus descanting on an evil without remedy; yet I still persisted. At
length, I asked to what causes I might ascribe his former disappointments,
in the letter to Risberg, which I proposed writing immediately.

This question threw him into much confusion. At last he said,
peevishly, "I wish, Jane, you would leave these matters to me: I don't
like your interference."

This rebuke astonished me. I had sufficient discernment to suspect
something extraordinary, but was for a few minutes quite puzzled and