I trust, create in her a new heart; and she may live to _befriend_, not to _annoy_ her family. Till that happy change takes place, be on your guard, never provoke her to anger, nor defy her power; such a conduct will never reclaim her, and _will ruin you_. Remember _this_ my dear son, and continue to press forward in that course, which must, and will end well for those who faint not. The distance is short, and the recompence of virtue the prize; fear not the ruggedness of the path, nor be discouraged, because the wicked prosper."--But I am forgetting my purpose, Madam, in recalling the last words of my guardian angel! My brother Oliver's voyage to Jamaica took place soon after my mother's death, and his marriage and final settlement in the island succeeded to these events. In the following year, my father purchased the estate of Tarefield, and giving up his business to my brother, and his old and faithful clerk, retired to the hall. His first sorrow for my mother's loss, was so violent as to give us fears for his life. His constitution was shaken by a fever of some danger and duration. On recovering from this peril, I could not help perceiving that the gloom which hung on his spirits, was tending to that state of discontent which invariably precludes all the "uses of adversity." Accustomed to seek, in the cheerful and conciliating temper of my mother, a relief in all the little petulancy of his own unequal disposition, he lamented her loss without ceasing, as a _convenience_, rather than a blessing, which he had seen torn from him. Lucretia, with unremitting attention, endeavoured to regulate his domestic comforts. Mary alone possessed the power to calm and compose his fretful hours; she was indulged as a child, in return for her tender solicitude to amuse and please him. I was useful to him in no way, and sunk into a cypher.