language, that my enjoyments at Tarefield are so dependent on Sir Murdock, that _I_ shall have no spirits, but in proportion as I find myself useful to the return of _his_. From the first day we met, I promised that we should be mutually useful to each other. He shall teach me wisdom, and in requital I will endeavour to cure him of his indolence.” “God will reward you!” said her Ladyship, with emotion.—“The endeavour alone,” answered I, “will be a recompence; yet I am on the point of shewing you I can be selfish. I entreat you to assure Miss Flint that I am a very harmless young woman, and that she may with safety permit her niece to be familiar with me.”—“Would to Heaven,” said she, “it was in my power, Miss Cowley, not only to oblige you in this request, but also to convince you of my own opinions, as they relate to this amiable girl! But I can only deplore her aunt’s harshness of temper. I have neither the authority nor the influence necessary to remedy the evil. Lucretia must be left to the bitter experience which will result from her temper; and Miss Howard must be satisfied with knowing, that she is not the only one under this roof who suffers from its caprices. I am this poor girl’s friend, but I cannot lessen the oppression under which she lives, although I abhor it.” The Baronet appeared, and I thought his wife was not displeased by the relief his presence brought her. He gladly accepted my invitation to breakfast, and it was no sooner finished than he became so engaged with a book as to resemble a statue. You say you do not yet know where to find me, should you be favoured with the gift of the renowned _Puss and her Boots_, and take it into your head to _step_ from Heathcot to Tarefield. Conceiving that, in the fancy of the moment, your imagination had conquered the difficulty of the staircases and thresholds, I will in my turn, fancy you are now in my _domicile_. My apartment forms the south wing of this irregular building, in which are two specious parlours, which command the east and south, by which means I have the avenue and the garden for my solace. But on discovering that Lady Maclairn had, from indulgence, a more peculiar privilege in the appropriation of these rooms to her own use, I have insisted on their being regarded as _hers_; and I have erected my throne of independence on the second floor, where the rooms are correspondent, only divided into three. It is in the south room you must look for your Rachel Cowley: but you may, if it please you, imagine you are still at home; for all in this _sanctum sanctorum_ is _Heathcot_. My work-table, the drawings we did together, Horace’s biographical chart—_all_ present to my mind those “Friends of reason, and my guides of youth, Whose language breath’d the eloquence of truth; Whose life beyond preceptive wisdom taught, The wise in conduct, and the pure in thought.”