Scythrop impatiently broke the seals. The contents were these:—
"Almost a stranger in England, I fled from parental tyranny, and the dread of an arbitrary marriage, to the protection of a stranger and a philosopher, whom I expected to find something better than, or at least something different from, the rest of his worthless species. Could I, after what has occurred, have expected nothing more from you than the common-place impertinence of sending your father to treat with me, and with mine, for me? I should be a little moved in your favor, if I could believe you capable of carrying into effect the resolutions which your father says you have taken, in the event of my proving inflexible: though I doubt not, you will execute them, as far as relates to the pint of
