“A sad stroke upon us, Mr. Vivian!--a sad stroke upon us all--but most upon me; for she was the child of my expectations--I hear she has told you every thing--you, also, have been very ill-used--Never was astonishment equal to mine when I heard Miss Strictland’s story. I need not caution you, Mr. Vivian, as to secrecy; you are a man of honour, and you see the peace of our whole family is at stake. The girl is going to a relation of ours in Devonshire.--Sha’n’t stay here--sha’n’t stay here--Disgrace to my family--She who was my pride--and, after all, says she will never marry.--Very well!--very well!--I shall never see her again, that I am determined upon.--I told her, that if she did not behave with common sense and propriety, in her last interview with you, I would give her up--and so I will, and so I do.--The whole is Lady Glistonbury’s fault--she never managed her rightly when she was a child. Oh! I should put you on your guard in one particular--Miss Bateman knows nothing of what has happened--I wish Miss Strictland knew as little--I hate her. What business had she to play the spy upon my daughter? She does well to be a prude, for she is as ugly as sin. But we are in her power. She is to go to-morrow with Julia to Devonshire. It will make a quarrel between me and Miss Bateman--no matter for that; for now, the sooner we get rid of that Rosamunda, too, the better--she talks me dead, and will let no one talk but herself. And, between you and me, all this could not have happened, if she had looked after her charge properly.--Not but what I think Miss Strictland was still less fit to guide a girl of Julia’s genius and disposition. All was done wrong at first, and I always said so to Lady Glistonbury. But, if the secret can be kept--and _that_ depends on you, my dear friend--after six months’ or a twelve-month’s _rustication_ with our poor parson in the country, you will see how tamed and docile the girl will come back to us. This is my scheme; but nobody shall know my whole mind but you--I shall tell her I will never see her again; and that will pacify Lady Glistonbury, and frighten Julia into submission. She says she’ll never marry.--Stuff! Stuff!--You don’t believe her!--What man who has seen any thing of the world ever believes such stuff?” Vivian’s servant came into the room to ask his master some question about horses. “Going!--where? Going!--when? Going!--how?” cried Lord Glistonbury, as soon as the servant withdrew. “Surely, you are not going to leave us, Mr. Vivian?”