a decent mediocrity, I wrote to Lady Maclairn my _observations_, not my _fears_; for I had none. Malcolm's visits were not restrained. I considered, Miss Cowley, that worldly prudence was not without its victims; that human wisdom was not unfrequently frustrated, and that an anxious eye to the future often overshot its mark. In the dread of poverty we sometimes forget to appreciate justly the barriers which talents, industry, and sobriety can oppose to its encroachments, and still more heedlessly, turn from the numberless examples, in which wealth, with the habits it induces, has been the high road to penury. Malcolm is a practical farmer; and from the application of better opportunities, and superior talents, he has enlarged Mr. Wilson's agricultural knowledge, who calls him 'his master.' Malcolm was not sixteen when I warned his mother of his _danger_," continued Mrs. Heartley smiling; "since his father has sanctioned his views, I have regarded him as my son. Fortunately, Alice's pedigree pleased the good baronet; and he told Malcolm, that with such an education as he described, and from so _honourable_ a stock, any girl was rich to an independent and wise man. From that hour his plans have been brought forward; and when, by means of his friend Wilson's assistance, he can find a farm, my children will be happy. An advantageous project in order to effect this, is now before them; and I hope will turn out as profitably to Mr. Wilson, who is a sensible and prudent man, as to Mr. Maclairn: in the mean time he is contented with the privileges I allow him; and Alice calls me her friend and confidant, and is in no hurry to change her name."