misgivings that I cannot subdue. Strangely as you have acted of late, I am
willing to think you incapable of what is laid to your charge. In few
words, Jane, they tell me that you mean to be actually married to
Colden.

You know what I think of that young man. You know my objections to the
conduct you thought proper to pursue in relation to Colden in your
husband's lifetime. You will judge, then, with what emotions such
intelligence was received.

Indiscreet as you have been, there are, I hope, bounds which your
education will not permit you to pass. Some regard, I hope, you will have
for your own reputation. If your conscience object not to this proceeding,
the dread of infamy, at least, will check your career.

You may think that I speak harshly, and that I ought to wait, at least,
till I knew your resolution, before I spoke of it in such terms; but, if
this report be groundless, my censures cannot affect you. If it be true,
they may serve, I hope, to deter you from persisting in your scheme.

What more can I say? You are my nearest relation; not my daughter, it
is true; but, since I have not any other kindred, you are more than a
daughter to me. That love, which a numerous family or kindred would divide
among themselves, is all collected and centred in you. The ties between us
have long ceased to be artificial ones, and I feel, in all respects, as if
you actually owed your being to me.

You have hitherto consulted my pleasure but little. I have all the
rights, in regard to you, of a mother, but these have been hitherto
despised or unacknowledged. I once regarded you as the natural successor