'My Georgiana,' said Mr. Tyrold, 'I am deeply disappointed. Our two
eldest girls are but slightly provided for; and Eugenia is far more
dangerously circumstanced, in standing so conspicuously apart, as a
prize to some adventurer. One of these three precious cares I had fondly
concluded certain of protection and happiness; for which ever I might
have bestowed upon Edgar Mandlebert, I should have considered as the
most fortunate of her sex. Let us, however, rejoice for Indiana; no one
can more need a protector; and, next to my own three girls, there is no
one for whom I am so much interested. I grieve, however, for Edgar
himself, whose excellent judgment will, in time, assert its rights,
though passion, at this period, has set it aside.'
'I am too angry with him for pity,' said Mrs. Tyrold; 'nor is his
understanding of a class that has any claim to such lenity: I had often
thought our gentle Lavinia almost born to be his wife, and no one could
more truly have deserved him. But the soft perfection of her character
relieves me from any apprehension for her conduct, and almost all my
solicitude devolves upon Camilla. For our poor Eugenia I had never
indulged a hope of his choice; though that valuable, unfortunate girl,
with every unearned defect about her, intrinsically merits him, with all
his advantages, his accomplishments, and his virtues: but to appreciate
her, uninfluenced by pecuniary views, to which he is every way superior,
was too much to expect from so young a man. My wishes, therefore, had
guided him to our Camilla, that sweet, open, generous, inconsiderate
girl, whose feelings are all virtues, but whose impulses have no
restraints: I have not a fear for her, when she can act with
deliberation; but fear is almost all I have left, when I consider her as
led by the start of the moment. With him, however, she would have been
the safest, and with him--next alone to her mother, the happiest of her
sex.'
The kindest acknowledgments repaid this sympathy of sentiment, and they
agreed that their felicity would have been almost too complete for this
lower world, if such an event had come to pass. 'Nevertheless its
failure,' added Mrs. Tyrold, 'is almost incredible, and wholly
unpardonable. That Indiana should vanquish where Lavinia and Camilla
have failed! I feel indignant at such a triumph of mere external
unintelligent beauty.'
Eugenia received her parents with the most bashful confusion; yet they
found, upon conversing with her, it was merely from youthful shame, and
not from any dangerous prepossession. The observations of Camilla had
broken that spell with which a first declaration of regard is apt to
entangle unreflecting inexperience; and by teaching her to less value
the votary, had made the conquest less an object of satisfaction. She
was gratified by the permission of her uncle to write her own answer,
which was now produced.
_To_ Alphonso Bellamy, _Esq._
SIR,