countrymen, and this reporter partook of several entertainments at his
house.

Methinks the memory of past incidents must sometimes intrude upon his
thoughts. Can he have utterly forgotten the father whom he reduced to
indigence, whom he sent to a premature grave? Amidst his present opulence,
one would think it would occur to him to inquire into the effects of his
misconduct, not only to his own family, but on others.

What a strange diversity there is among human characters! Frank is, I
question not, gay, volatile, impetuous as ever. The jovial carousal and
the sound sleep are never molested, I dare say, by the remembrance of the
incidents I have related to you.

Methinks, had I the same heavy charges to make against my conscience, I
should find no refuge but death from the goadings of remorse. To have
abandoned a father to the jail or the hospital, or to the charity of
strangers,--a father too who had yielded him an affection and a trust
without limits; to have wronged a sister out of the little property on
which she relied for support to her unprotected youth or helpless age,--a
sister who was virtually an orphan, who had no natural claim upon her
present patroness, but might be dismissed penniless from the house that
sheltered her, without exposing the self-constituted mother to any
reproach.

And has not this event taken place already? What can I expect but that,
at _least_, it will take place as soon as she hears of my resolution
with regard to thee? She ought to know it immediately. I myself ought to
tell it, and this was one of the tasks which I designed to perform in your
absence: yet, alas! I know not how to set about it.