“I was about to conclude with my love and blessing to the mother and her babe, but upon reading over what in the confusion of my thoughts I have so ill put together, I find I have omitted to tell you, who the young man is, of whom I have been speaking. His name is Jones, a gentleman by birth, but destitute of fortune. He was ensign, and on a recruiting party at Denbigh, where I noticed him for his modest manners and engaging person; having withal known his father Colonel Jones, and served with him in the same regiment when I was in the army, I invited this youth to make my house his quarters, became very fond of him, and furnished him with means to purchase a lieutenancy. I have nothing to charge him with; his conduct towards my daughter was honourable in the extreme, and I am informed that it was his punctilious delicacy towards me as his patron, that occasioned him to secede, when she probably would have summoned resolution to have laid the state of her heart before me; which had she done, if I know myself, I know she would have had her lover, and Jones would have had my estate. I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, &c. &c. JOHN MORGAN.” The perusal of this melancholy letter made a deep impression on the feeling heart of De Lancaster: he pondered on its contents for some time, and began to arrange his thoughts for answering it in a consolatory manner. When he had written a few lines, he laid down his pen, and said within himself--How much better might all this be stated face to face in person than upon paper! He is ill, poor man, and unable to come to me; I am in health, and will go to him; he cannot fail to take my visit kindly, and the face of a friend is cheering, when the spirits are depressed. I will act towards him, as I, in his circumstances, should wish and expect him to act towards me. It is but about four hours drive, and I can be home the next morning: if the roads are passable, ’twill be a pleasant jaunt, for the weather is now fine, and promises a fair day to-morrow. Having settled this point to his kind heart’s content, the good man rang his bell, and summoned his servant, who had been to Glen-Morgan, to make his report of the roads.