will leave to your judgment and to your kindness."

Belinda gave a full account of her acquaintance with Clarence Hervey; of
the variations in his manner towards her; of his excellent conduct with
respect to Lady Delacour (of this, by-the-by, she spoke at large). But she
was more concise when she touched upon the state of her own heart; and her
voice almost failed when she came to the history of the lock of beautiful
hair, the Windsor incognita, and the picture of Virginia. She concluded by
expressing her conviction of the propriety of forgetting a man, who was in
all probability attached to another, and she declared it to be her
resolution to banish him from her thoughts. Lady Anne said, "that nothing
could be more prudent or praiseworthy than forming such a
resolution--except keeping it." Lady Anne had a high opinion of Mr.
Hervey; but she had no doubt, from Belinda's account, and from her own
observations on Mr. Hervey, and from slight circumstances which had
accidentally come to Mr. Percival's knowledge, that he was, as Belinda
suspected, attached to another person. She wished, therefore, to confirm
Miss Portman in this belief, and to turn her thoughts towards one who,
beside being deserving of her esteem and love, felt for her the most
sincere affection. She did not, however, press the subject farther at this
time, but contented herself with requesting that Belinda would take three
days (the usual time given for deliberation in fairy tales) before she
should decide against Mr. Vincent.

The next day they went to look at a porter's lodge, which Mr. Percival had
just built; it was inhabited by an old man and woman, who had for many
years been industrious tenants, but who, in their old age, had been
reduced to poverty, not by imprudence, but by misfortune. Lady Anne was
pleased to see them comfortably settled in their new habitation; and
whilst she and Belinda were talking to the old couple, their