great faith in public philanthropists, more especially of the Exeter Hall breed; but as he is one of the Commissioners in Lunacy, and knows the whole affair, I wonder if, under the circumstances, as a piece of good Samaritanship, Lord SHAFTESBURY would consent to be my Trustee? for he might be a check upon your Father.” “A very good person,” said he, “I’ll ask him, and let you know to-morrow, darling.” So, it being then seven o’clock, and he having to get back for his Father’s dinner, left me after this most harrowing day; though I then little dreamed of the red-hot ploughshares there were to come, after being kept full three months in a Fool’s Paradise about my son’s love and devotion to me; and when I used to chide him for being so demonstrative, even in public places, and say people would think I was some old woman whom he had married for money, he would say, “Oh, but Mother darling, we are not like ordinary Mother and Son; I love you in every possible way, and then I love you back all the love I’ve not been let to pay you for years; and then you have suffered _so_ much, and borne it so nobly, that you are to me something holy.” At other times he would cry out after hugging me, “Mamma,” as he always called me, “what I worship in you, is, that with a lion’s heart, you are so tender a woman!” All these demonstrations were, of course, music to my ears, and what tended materially to keep me in this Fool’s Paradise, was that there was a girl whom he was much attached to (not an English miss, thank GOD), and whom his vile Father was luring him on to suppose he would give him sufficient money to marry, and when I used to see him looking wretched, and thinking it was about her, he’d burst into tears, and throw himself into my arms, saying, “Oh, no! it’s not that, Mother, for I declare before GOD, if it were to be made a matter of alternative, which I would give up, her or you, I’d give her up to-morrow, if I might always have you with me.” Then, too, a very old and kind benefactor of his, an elderly gentleman, who had shown him much kindness, and whose large means, when ROBERT was a boy, had often atoned for his father’s sordid parsimony, wrote to me, saying, “I can answer for the deep love and yearning, dear, dear ROBERT has always had for his Mother; and oh! how sincerely do I rejoice in his happiness now.” Add to which my maid was always telling me that FLETCHER, ROBERT’S valet, used to say to her, “Oh! how Mr. L—— does adore his Mother. I often surprise him kissing her gloves, and slippers. Poor young gentleman! I never saw a happy face on him till now; he seems like a natural person now, which he never did with his Father, of whom he is mortally afraid.” So you will own that if this was fooling, I was _well_ fooled. But I must return to the horrors. The next day, after the first on which I had seen him, Mr. L—— returned to the lodge, and on coming into the room, said, “Well darling, you owe me