This letter produced its desired effect; for, some months after its date, the following one appears to have been addressed to Mr. Hardcastle, from Mr. Cowley. As it will serve to ascertain his character, I shall transcribe its contents.—“Your wife has conquered, my dear friend. I have at length summoned up resolution to be a parent and a man. Good God! thou only knowest the price of the sacrifice to my duty! and thou only canst render it propitious to thy creature! But I will still hope in thy mercies. My child, Hardcastle, has been spared hitherto; she has happily encountered, not only the diseases peculiar to her tender age, but also the small-pox, which she has had, since our last dispatches, in the mildest form, and is now in _perfect health_. To what purpose has she been thus preserved? Not to be the victim of my doating fondness. My promise to her dear mother shall be fulfilled, and whilst it is yet time to save her from a father’s weakness. Captain Vernon, who loved her mother, and whose attachment to this child is little less than my own, shall be entrusted with her; and Mrs. Allen will attend her. You may expect to see her with the next Jamaica fleet.” “I have only to observe to you, as I have done to Counsellor Steadman, that I consider Mrs. Dawson’s legacy to my daughter, as totally remote from any calculations of her expences as my child; I shall never interfere with him as to the disposal of the money. I have long since forgotten Mrs. Dawson’s weaknesses and prejudices, nor did I need any inducement for my conduct of the nature she supposed. My wife’s dying request in regard to her infant, shall be religiously observed; and it is an unspeakable consolation to me to know, that the friend whom she appointed as her substitute, is as willing to engage in the duty as she expected. I shall remit you annually eight hundred per annum for her and Mrs. Allen’s maintenance under your roof. You know that this excellent woman is bound by her engagement to her mother to serve her. You know the station she has filled in my house since the death of my wife. Mrs. Hardcastle is prepared to meet in her a valuable addition to her family: she will not be disappointed; for her modest worth will ensure her a welcome in any abode where virtue dwells.