Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/150

Rh letter may serve to show. Lady Anne was chaperoning three of the girls to a juvenile ball. Mary was never in any one's way, so that there was no restraint on Isabella's joy when she received Mr. Glentworth's letter. If ever this world contained a perfectly happy human being, it was Isabella Granard when she broke the seal, and began to read her long and closely-written epistle:— "My very dear Isabella (for such you will always be to me, whatever may be your decision after reading the following pages,) "Since I left Welbeck Street to-day, I have most seriously considered our mutual position. For both our sakes, I must be as explicit as possible; and if I write more coldly than it may seem to you I ought, remember I write with the fear of your future before me. Though thoughtful far beyond your years, you are very inexperienced; and I would not have a preference that may originate in your little knowledge of others, or a romantic exaggeration of slight kindnesses, lead you into a precipitate union with me, unless you most seriously examine your own heart, and weigh the various consequences. I am double your own age, my habits formed, my spirits saddened, and the life I would choose one of quiet and seclusion. I have loved before passionately, entirely, as none ever love twice. Hitherto that attachment, though hopeless, has kept me from forming other ties; it might have done so, even unto the end, but for my late