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do you think that ladies and gentlemen of undoubted character would have gone to their balls, or been partakers of their splendid festivals? Yet that they did so I can prove, for at one of these balls Mr Spurton introduced a lord to my sister, and called him his particular friend! This of itself is conclusive testimony in their favour. I then endeavoured to persuade him, that all the information given concerning Mr Mollins was equally false and malicious; and that though he might be vain and extravagant, and have a thousand faults, he was doubtless a man of fortune, and well received by the world."
"But may he not be the villain to seduce my daughter's affections, and bring her to ruin and disgrace?" said my father.
"Of that, I replied, I had no apprehensions; I too well knew my sister, to fear that her affections would ever be seduced by love. On the contrary, I was convinced that the man who could most cer-
