before I can have an answer from him, were I to write: and, confined as I
am, were the answer to come in time, and they did not like it, they would
keep it from me.

In the next place, parents have great advantages in every eye over the
child, if she dispute their pleasure in the disposing of her: and so they
ought; since out of twenty instances, perhaps two could not be produced,
when they were not in the right, the child in the wrong.

You would not, I am sure, have me accept of Mr. Lovelace's offered
assistance in such a claim. If I would embrace any other person's, who
else would care to appear for a child against parents, ever, till of
late, so affectionate?==But were such a protector to be found, what a
length of time would it take up in a course of litigation! The will and
the deeds have flaws in them, they say. My brother sometimes talks of
going to reside at The Grove: I suppose, with a design to make ejectments
necessary, were I to offer at assuming; or, were I to marry Mr. Lovelace,
in order to give him all the opposition and difficulty the law would help
him to give.

These cases I have put to myself, for argument-sake: but they are all out
of the question, although any body were to be found who would espouse my
cause: for I do assure you, I would sooner beg my bread, than litigate
for my right with my father: since I am convinced, that whether the
parent do his duty by the child or not, the child cannot be excused from
doing hers to him. And to go to law with my father, what a sound has
that! You will see, that I have mentioned my wish (as an alternative,
and as a favour) to be permitted, if I must be put out of his house, to
go thither: but not one step further can I go. And you see how this is
resented.