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the prohibition of St. Paul; and concluded by declaring he would have nothing to do with a family in which, he was pleased to say, the levity on the one side was only to be matched by the enthusiasm on the other. My sister Diana, who, I had hoped, would have obtained the situation of governess in squire Tremayne's family, lost it by divers of her wonted indiscretions. The first thing that indisposed the squire was hearing she had ridden a pony-race for a wager: instead of endeavouring, by decorous behaviour, to discredit this calumny, my freakish sister, as you, dear uncle, were wont facetiously to call her, next offended him grievously, by personating to the very life a fortune-telling gipsy, and afterwards a beadle in search of said gipsy. The squire found out her two disguises, and swore it was the last trick she should play on him; when, the next morning, she put the finishing stroke to his indignation, by shooting and bringing down some of his phea

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sants, which, you know, are most carefully preserved. She lost his patronage, and I my hopes. The thought is grievous-but the will of the Lord be done! We may yet have reason to say with Othello, "Tis better as it is.' To sum up all-such being the state of the family-Olivia having suffered a disappointment of the heartDiana and Bridget in their hopes of establishment, and your humble servant in more ways than one-of which more anon -we are all four, Providence permitting, quite in a disposition for a visit to Mount Parnassus, where we hope our several talents may be useful, and where, as we propose to begin our preparations without delay, we beg you, dear uncle, in the course of next week, to expect

"Your dutiful nephew and nieces,

"COBHAM PENDENNIS,

"BRIDGET PENDENNIS,

"DIANA PENDENNIS,

"OLIVIA PENDENNIS."

Of this production, which shewed rather too much of the characters of the persons mentioned in it, Pendennis only communicated such a portion to his patroness as he thought proper. He was certainly a little alarmed at the prospect of his three nieces volunteering to take up their abode with him; but he wisely considered that the academy was built upon the plan of accommodating a family, and that, as he had none of his own, these young persons might be at once cheerful society, and useful in housekeeping. He therefore prepared, with alacrity, to make arrangements for this additional number of guests; and in this task he was greatly assisted by the friendliness and activity of Miss O'Reilly, who hardly let a day pass without looking in at Mount Parnassus.

In this display of zeal, it cannot be supposed she was actuated solely by an interest in the comfort of her new and whimsical acquaintance. No; it was to pay off part of the debt of gratitude, incurred to

sir Charles and lady Louisa Southwell, for many years of hospitality and protection, that she thus interested herself in the welfare of a person patronised by her ladyship. Gay, frank, good-humoured, and obliging, without a particle of discontent or detrac tion in her disposition, Miss O'Reilly, at the age of forty, afforded a favourable specimen of a character known perhaps only in Ireland. In her youth, pretty and attractive, she had, though nearly portionless, not been without admirers; but during her father's lifetime, her attachment to a very happy home, and, after his death, an increased reluctance to leave a beloved and widowed mother, prevented Miss O'Reilly from listening to any offer of marriage. At length the widow died; but Dora O'Reilly was no longer young nor pretty. Lovers had ceased to present themselves; but still, with her talents and resources, Miss O'Reilly would, in another country, have immediately adopted some plan for increasing her very limited inF4

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come, and insuring to herself a respectable independence. In Ireland this was impossible. Could the third cousin of sir Charles Southwell be so ungenteel as to think of doing any thing for herself? Forbid it, pride of family! On the contrary, she gladly accepted an invitation to take up her abode at Meadowscourt, where she requited, by a thousand little services, the kindness of relatives on whom she was not ashamed to depend, and where her inexhaustible flow of spirits, and invincible good-humour, made her really an acquisition to her less happy, though more fortunate friends.

One evening, Miss O'Reilly had so far worked upon the indolent curiosity of Miss Southwell, as to induce her to accompany her on a visit to Mount Parnassus, to look in upon Pendennis, as she phrased it, and see what he was doing. They found the pedagogue, assisted by the reverend Mr. Preston, busily engaged in questioning a youth, the grotesqueness

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