Freeman’s letter to Horace’s father; and the plan recommended, was not only favourable to Horace’s future views, but also advantageous to his further improvement. The difficulties which had suspended Mr. Hardcastle’s decision, will be easily imagined: his honour silenced the fond remonstrances of his heart; and he determined on a separation, which would at once exclude his son from all personal intercourse with Miss Cowley for a longer time than he conceived her father would permit her to remain unmarried. He lost no time in placing before his son his uncle’s proposal, and his own entire concurrence in the plan. “In this sacrifice of my own comforts for your advantage,” added the father, “I shall, I must be amply indemnified by seeing you escape from the danger which menaces you under my roof. In the duties of _friendship_, you may, my son, safely indulge the sensibility of a warm and affectionate nature; but in the presence of a beautiful girl, endeared to you by the sweet ties of infant sportiveness and familiar approach, you have forgotten, Horace, that passion and imagination are the usual rocks on which the honour and security of a young man are shipwrecked. I know that your principles are sound; I also know, that in the present delusion of your senses, there is no mixture of a sordid consideration in regard to Miss Cowley’s wealth. No, Horace, you are too generous for such views, and she is too attractive to need them. But tell me, with what arguments would you confute the charge so strongly to be inferred from the circumstances in which we are placed relatively to this young lady, by her grandmother’s will? I know Mr. Cowley, and I believe him to be a liberal-minded man; but would Horace Hardcastle find in an _extorted_ consent to his union with his daughter, the approbation needful for his _honour_? Recollect, that a gift not freely bestowed, is, and must be, oppressive to a noble mind; and the tenderness and weakness of a parent, who yields to the importunities of a fond, love-sick girl, furnish no excuse for the man who has fraudulently counteracted her parent’s views and expectations, by gaining an empire over her affections. Be more just to yourself, my son. You want not wealth to elevate you, nor firmness to conquer your present feelings. Be not deceived by the enthusiasm which now governs you. The good report of your fellow-creatures is of more importance to your happiness than you believe; and from the censure which will involve you and myself of having made a property of this lovely girl, and cheated her unsuspecting and generous father, there will be no appeal even to the candid.” “I will go,” answered Horace, his face crimsoned with blushes, “I will go to the farthest part of the globe, to spare you from such calumny. But I must love Rachel Cowley, or cease to live. Suffer me to depart with this shield to guard my youth, with this invigorating hope, that I may one day convince her father that I am