for her alliance, in her father's opinion as well as in her own, I am
afraid her chance of marriage will be infinitely small.

Were I but assured that Coke Clifton would be as kind and as worthy a
husband, to Anna St. Ives, as any other whom it were probable accident
should ever throw in her way, I should then indeed seriously wish such
a thought might be something more than the transient flight of fancy.
But enough. You are on the wing to the city where you and he will
probably meet. Examine him well; forget his sister; be true to yourself
and your own judgment, and I have no fear that you should be deceived.
If he prove better even than a sister's hopes, he will find in me more
than a sister's love.

I like Sir Arthur's favourite, Abimelech Henley, still less than you
do. My fears indeed are rather strong. When once a taste for
improvement [I mean building and gardening improvement] becomes a
passion, gaming itself is scarcely more ruinous. I have no doubt that
Sir Arthur's fortune has suffered, and is suffering severely; and that
while that miserly wretch, Abimelech, is destroying the fabric, he is
purloining and carrying off the best of the materials. I doubt whether
there be an acre of land in the occupation of Sir Arthur, which has not
cost ten times its intrinsic value to make it better. It is astonishing
how Sir Arthur can be [pardon the expression, my dear] such a dupe! I
have before blamed, and must again blame you, for not exerting yourself
sufficiently to shew him his folly. It concerns the family, it concerns
yourself, nearly. Who can tell how far off the moment is when it may be
too late? My mamma has just heard of a new mortgage, in procuring of
which the worthy Abimelech acted, or pretended to act, as agent: for I
assure you I suspect he was really the principal. During my last visit,
if I do not mistake, I several times saw the pride of wealth betraying