fir-grove.

Your letter, my dear Sir Edward, demands my earliest acknowledgments; – accept my sincere thanks for the friendship it demonstrates both to me and my son, whom I am far from being easy about. Never could I have supposed that such a woman as Fanny Elwood would have had attractions for the heart of Charles Montgomery, who has ever been accustomed to the politest circles. Had the girl no vices, yet she is by no means calculated for a domestic companion to a man of sentiment and education. I own his attachment to her has greatly deceived the expectations I had formed of him, and disappointed the plan I had long been forming for his happiness: – this plan I have hitherto concealed, but will now confide it to your bosom. Mr. Bertills, the father of the young lady whose/ letter you inclosed, is not only my nearest relation, but my dearest and most valued friend: – the excellent qualities of his heart, with which I have from childhood been acquainted, give him a claim to that distinction. He has ever been extremely partial to Charles, and we had determined on an union between Miss Bertills and him, if it could be effected without putting any disagreeable restraint upon the inclinations of either. This union was and still is the wish of my heart. Rhoda, tho’ not strikingly beautiful, has every charm necessary to engage the lasting esteem and affections of any man who is qualified to judge of intrinsic merit, and whose own good sense prompts him to look for something beyond beauty, in a woman with whom he is to pass his retired hours. I yet hope, my dear sir, that my son will be convinced of his error before it is too late, and withdraw his affections from Fanny, to place them on one who will do honor to his judgment; and may that one be Rhoda Bertills! The concern she expresses gives me pain, even while it gratifies my pride and my affection.