Evelina | Page 7

which
seems to me the best respect that can be paid to her memory. Permit me,

therefore, to lay before you a plan which Mrs. Mirvan and I have
formed, in consequence of your restoration to health.
I would not frighten you;-but do you think you could bear to part with
your young companion for two or three months? Mrs. Mirvan proposes
to spend the ensuing spring in London, whither for the first time, my
grandchild will accompany her: Now, my good friend, it is very
earnestly their wish to enlarge and enliven their party by the addition of
your amiable ward, who would share, equally with her own daughter,
the care and attention of Mrs. Mirvan. Do not start at this proposal; it is
time that she should see something of the world. When young people
are too rigidly sequestered from it, their lively and romantic
imaginations paint it to them as a paradise of which they have been
beguiled; but when they are shown it properly, and in due time, they
see it such as it really is, equally shared by pain and pleasure, hope and
disappointment.
You have nothing to apprehend from her meeting with Sir John
Belmont, as that abandoned man is now abroad, and not expected home
this year.
Well, my good Sir, what say you to our scheme? I hope it will meet
with your approbation; but if it should not, be assured I can never
object to any decision of one who is so much respected and esteemed as
Mr. Villars, by His most faithful, humble servant, M. HOWARD.
LETTER IV
MR. VILLARS TO LADY HOWARD Berry Hill, March 12.
I AM grieved, Madam, to appear obstinate, and I blush to incur the
imputation of selfishness. In detaining my young charge thus long with
myself in the country, I consulted not solely my own inclination.
Destined, in all probability, to possess a very moderate fortune, I
wished to contract her views to something within it. The mind is but
too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation: it
has been my study to guard her against their delusions, by preparing
her to expect-and to despise them. But the time draws on for experience

and observation to take the place of instruction: if I have in some
measure, rendered her capable of using one with discretion, and making
the other with improvement, I shall rejoice myself with the assurance of
having largely contributed to her welfare. She is now of an age that
happiness is eager to attend,-let her then enjoy it! I commit her to the
protection of your Ladyship, and only hope she may be found worthy
half the goodness I am satisfied she will meet with at your hospitable
mansion.
Thus far, Madam, I cheerfully submit to your desire. In confiding my
ward to the care of Lady Howard, I can feel no uneasiness from her
absence, but what will arise from the loss of her company, since I shall
be as well convinced of her safety as if she were under my own
roof.-But can your Ladyship be serious in proposing to introduce her to
the gaieties of a London life? Permit me to ask, for what end, or for
what purpose? A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to
curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation
is to increase enjoyment. I apprehend nothing more than too much
raising her hopes and her views, which the natural vivacity of her
disposition would render but too easy to effect. The town-acquaintance
of Mrs. Mirvan are all in the circle of high life; this artless young
creature, with too much beauty to escape notice, has too much
sensibility to be indifferent to it; but she has too little wealth to be
sought with propriety by men of the fashionable world.
Consider Madam, the peculiar cruelty of her situation. Only child of a
wealthy Baronet, whose person she has never seen, whose character she
has reason to abhor, and whose name she is forbidden to claim; entitled
as she is to lawfully inherit his fortune and estate, is there any
probability that he will properly own her? And while he continues to
persevere in disavowing his marriage with Miss Evelyn, she shall never,
at the expense of her mother's honour, receive a part of her right as the
donation of his bounty.
And as to Mr. Evelyn's estate, I have no doubt but that Madame Duval
and her relations will dispose of it among themselves.
It seems, therefore, as if this deserted child, though legally heiress to

two large fortunes, must owe all her rational expectations to adoption
and friendship. Yet her income will be such as may make her happy, if
she is disposed to