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 that to a man of his penetration this was the case; but it was so. The truth was, Captain Mortimer, from the warmth of his friendship, eager for the marriage of Hamilton with Miss Primrose, had passed from wish to hope, and from hope to conviction, and publicly talked of it as a matter certain. The report was current through Brighton. It had been, by officious curiosity and gossiping impertinence, repeatedly introduced before the young lady herself, and it was easily discerned that she listened with confusion, but not with displeasure. Her mother, loving the daughter for her child's own sake, and not regarding her as a mere instrument of her own vanity and ambition, was resolved in the most momentous action of her life to consult her happiness, and not the increase of wealth, which she did not want, or the acquisition of title, which might not augment her solid comfort and enjoyment; and not to op