Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/184

 as strong to me as when we were in our first infancy. He would sometimes send for money a little faster than my father thought convenient; upon which he would say to me, 'This brother of yours is so extravagant, I don't know how I shall do to support him.' But I have since thought this was only done to try me, and to hear me plead for him, which I always did with all the little rhetoric I was mistress of; so that by this means he contrived to give me the utmost pleasure, in letting me believe I procured my brother what he wanted. So indulgent was this parent, that he used every art he was master of, to give me all the pleasing sensations that arise from generosity and delicacy. "As I constantly lived with him, and was solicitous in my attendance on him, though he was very impartial, yet I believe I was something his favourite; but I always made use of that favour rather for my brother's advantage than my own. I have heard of women living at home with their fathers, and using all kind of art to make them hate their brothers, in hopes by that means to better their own fortunes; but to me it is surprising, for I could never have forgiven myself, if I could once have reflected that I had ever done my dear Valentine any injury, or omitted any opportunity of serving him. I lived on in this state, in which I had nothing to wish but my mother alive again, nor anything to regret but her loss. "I had a companion in a young woman in the neighbourhood, who had more wit and vivacity than any woman I ever knew; and we spent our time, when my father was in his study, or gone abroad, in little innocent amusements, suitable to girls of our age. In this manner did I live till I was eighteen; happy had it been for me, if my lifalife [sic] had ended there; I should then have escaped