Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/39

 ance and enlightened education, should be in narrow circumstances and obscurity. If however, he can properly account for this obscurity and want of fortune; if the one proceeds neither from ignoble birth nor dishonourable conduct; and the other from no idle extravagance, no degrading folly, we will not wait for the realization of his plan, be it what it may, to realize his happiness. You are perhaps surprised (she continued) to hear me speak in this positive manner, as if I had an absolute power to dispose of you; but know my dear, that in me your father vested such a power. As soon as I understood your situation with regard to de Sevignie, I communicated to him all I thought concerning it, and requested his advice; he answered me immediately, and begged in future, I might never apply to him on the subject, but depend entirely on my own judgment; he entreated me to do this, he said, from a firm conviction that I would watch over you with as much solicitude and scarcely less tenderness than he would