“I cannot leave this place till you assure me that Miss Jones has recovered from the alarm, which my inconsiderate conduct was the cause of, and that I have not offended past forgiveness. I have the honour to be, &c. “John De Lancaster.” To this Mrs. Jennings instantly returned the following answer-- “Sir, You have given no offence to Amelia Jones, but as you know the delicacy, that is due to a destitute young orphan in her dependant situation, I am sure your sensibility will remind you how necessary it will be for her peace, and how consistent with your honour, to leave her in her obscurity, and suffer me to hope this interview will be the last. “&c. &c.” CHAPTER III. _Business, long postponed, is at length concluded to the Satisfaction of all Parties._ We have before observed, that opposition of opinions made no breach in friendship between the worthy parties, who were in the habit of carrying on the debates, that occurred at Kray Castle. In the first place it is not certain that Robert De Lancaster was in all cases tenacious of his argument merely from conviction of its strength, but partly perhaps from attachment to it for its singularity, and the occasion it afforded him oftentimes of displaying that fund of philological erudition, which he indisputably possessed: in the second place, it is not to be denied, that whenever he was absolutely convinced of the opinion he defended, he was not apt to think the worse of it, because his friend Wilson could not be brought to adopt it. As his researches had chiefly carried him to those authorities, of which the classical scholar takes no account, so by arming himself with them in the lists of controversy, he fought with weapons, and made left-handed thrusts, that even literary men could rarely parry, and Colonel Wilson never. So equipped, he could lay down a proposition, which nobody would dispute, and draw inferences from it which nobody could admit: but let this be considered rather as an exercise of his ingenuity, than as a defect in his understanding.