“But as it is possible, that my orphan daughters may one day become the heiresses of Sargans, care must be taken to prevent their adopting any measure, which may make them blush at recollecting the obscurity, in which they are to pass their early years. I desire therefore, that you William Tell (whom I appoint their guardian) should not only bring them up innocently and virtuously, but should make them mistresses of as many elegant accomplishments, as circumstances will admit. Above all I command you on no account to suffer them to contract a marriage unsuitable to their illustrious birth. Unless a mother’s fondness deceives me, they will be singularly beautiful. Providence ever watches over the orphan’s destiny; and perhaps even in their humble station their charms may attract the observant glance of some young nobleman. Should such be the case, William Tell is at liberty to remove all obstacles to such an union, by revealing to the lover the real name of the parents of my daughters; and I also absolve him from his oath in so far, as to authorize him to disclose to themselves the secret of their illustrious origin, whenever they are sufficiently arrived at years of discretion, to make such a disclosure necessary or useful.”— —“Here is this important paper,” resumed Tell after a short pause, for this long discourse had greatly exhausted him; “you will read it over together at your leisure: but one thing more I must observe to you. The Countess was no less averse to the seclusion of a convent than to ill-assorted marriages.—In one place (which I have pointed out for Mary’s observation by three crosses) she writes thus—“Be the veil the last refuge of my children, and on no account must either of them be suffered to assume it before her six-and-twentieth year. Then, if no more inviting prospect presents itself, their real rank may be revealed to the Superior, and the sums (which I leave for that purpose in the hands of William Tell) appropriated to the endowment of the Convent, in which they think proper to pronounce their vows.”—