THERE IS NO HURRY. 185

care for into the abyss I dread? This is the
common sense view of the case; but there is
yet another. Is it to be borne that I would
seek to rob your child of her happiness? The
supposition is an insult too gross to be endured.
I will leave my mother. to-morrow. An old
school-fellow, older and more fortunate than
myself, wished me to educate her little girl... I
had one or two strong objections to livingin her -
house ; but the desire to be independent and
away has overcome them.” She then, with
many tears, entreated her uncle still to protect
her mother; urged how she had been sorely
tried ; and communicated fears, she had reason
to believe were too well founded, that her eld-
est brother, feeling the reverse more than he
could bear, had deserted from his regiment.
Charles Adams was deeply moved by the no-
bleness of his niece, and reproved his daughter
more harshly than he had ever done before, for
the feebleness that created so strong and unjust
a passion. This had the contrary effect to what
he had hoped for: she did not hesitate to say
that her cousin had endeavoured to rob her both
of the affection of her lover and her father.
The injured cousin left Repton bowed beneath
an accumulation of troubles, not one of which
was of her own creating, not one of which she
deserved ; and all springing from the unprovid-
ing nature of him who, had he been asked the
question, would have declared himself ready to