and family.




LETTER XIV

_Anna Wenbourne St. Ives to Louisa Clifton_

_London, Grosvenor-Street_

I have had a strong contest, my dear, with our favourite youth, to
overcome what I believe I have convinced him is prejudice; and I hope
he is cured of false delicacy, for the future. He is to go with us to
France, and is no longer under the necessity of abstaining from
innocent and instructive amusements, because he is possessed of
sensibility and a high respect for virtue. But he had no sooner
accepted this supply than away he was gone to his convert. This I
suspected. For which reason I had previously dispatched Mrs. Clarke to
visit her nephew. The good woman could not be prevailed on to receive
any money for his relief; urging that she was very capable of supplying
him herself. That being so, I did not choose violently to contest the
matter with her; as I do not wish to encourage the most distant
approaches to a spirit of avarice. I only told her it would be unjust
should she ever want money, for useful and virtuous purposes, if she
did not apply to me: and she with much good sense answered she thought
as I did, and would certainly act accordingly. She is a very worthy
woman.

She was with her nephew when Frank came in; and the scene, as described