Very true, my mother said:--and hoped his will would not now be
disputed by a child so favoured.

To shew they were all of a sentiment, my uncle Harlowe said, he hoped
his beloved niece only wanted to know her father's will, to obey it.

And my uncle Antony, in his rougher manner, added, that surely I would
not give them reason to apprehend, that I thought my grandfather's
favour to me had made me independent of them all.--If I did, he would
tell me, the will could be set aside, and should.

I was astonished, you must needs think.--Whose addresses now, thought
I, is this treatment preparative to?--Mr. Wyerley's again?--or whose?
And then, as high comparisons, where self is concerned, sooner than
low, come into young people's heads; be it for whom it will, this is
wooing as the English did for the heiress of Scotland in the time of
Edward the Sixth. But that it could be for Solmes, how should it
enter into my head?

I did not know, I said, that I had given occasion for this harshness.
I hoped I should always have a just sense of every one's favour to me,
superadded to the duty I owed as a daughter and a niece: but that I
was so much surprised at a reception so unusual and unexpected, that I
hoped my papa and mamma would give me leave to retire, in order to
recollect myself.

No one gainsaying, I made my silent compliments, and withdrew;--
leaving my brother and sister, as I thought, pleased; and as if they
wanted to congratulate each other on having occasioned so severe a
beginning to be made with me.