myfelf thofe griefs which the excess of my affection inadvertently occafioned you. No brother ever loved a fifter, no parent a child, with fonder paffion. The averfion, which I thought you had fuddenly taken to me, was one of the moft fenfible: afflictions of my life; and my ignoranceof what latterly became of you, can only be accounted for by an abftract of my own ftory.

Here Mr Fenton called for chocolate.. And, after breakfast, he gave lady Maitland the following affecting history of his own life and adventures.

CHA P. XIII..

STORY of the Hon. Mr CLINTON.

T

HE world, my lovely coufin, the world is to man, as his temper or complexion. The mind conftitutes itsown profperity and adverfity: winter prefents no cloud to a chearful fpirit, neither. can fummer find funfhine for the fpirit that is in a flate of dejection. In my youth, every object prefented me with happiness; but alas, the time came, when the univerfe appeared as a vault wherein joy was entombed,

entombed, and the fun himself but as a lamp that ferved to fhew the gloom and the horrors around me.

As my father and mother died before I was taken from nurfe, I knew none of thofe parental tenderneffes and endearments that ferve to humanize the foul, and give it the firft impreffions of fociali attachment; neither were thofe fweetneffes in any degree fupplied to me, by the behaviour of an imperious brother, or of a magifterial guardian. As I was naturally, however, of a benevolent caft, I' fought for thofe affections and amities a mong ftrangers, which I had not found: in the bofoms or faces of kin.

I pafs over the immaterial parts of my life at school and college, and haften 'to. the more important period of my appren ticeship..

Your father bound me to Mr Golding,. a very wealthy and eminent merchant, who lived over against the Exchange. He had been fome years a widower, and his only child, a daughter, was then at a boarding-fchool.

Mr Golding, with a plain understanding, was a man of exceeding honesty and a fufceptible heart. At first fight he conceived a partial affection for me, whereof he gave me very frequent and very tender

proofs;

proofs; and, as he flood to me in the place of a patron and a father, I felt for him all the fondnefs and attachment of a child.

In the fourth year of my apprenticeship he called me to his clofet, and, taking me kindly by the hand, Harry, fays he, I love you; your intereft lies near my heart; for though you are not the begotten of my body, you are the child of my affec tions. -Be quiet Harry—let me speak

I have to talk to you of matters of confequence.I went yesterday to your uncle Goodall, to know how accounts food between ye-though he is but a cold kinfman, he is a very faithful guardian---He has juft married a very lovely young woman, and I would have you go and pay your compliments to them on the occafion... Your uncle has laid out your little penny to good advantage, and your 12000l is now nearly doubled---And now, Harry, as your father did not behave: like a father toward you, in the dividend which he made between you and your brother, I propose in some measure to fupply his place, and I make you a prefent of this note of 12000l. which added to your little patrimony may enable you---O, sir! I cried. Be quiet, child, I say again,, till you find whether or no you fhall have

realoni

reason to thank me...I am growing old,
my Harry, and by a long courfe of indu-
ftry have earned a kind of title to fome
little reft; I would therefore gladly make
a compofition between your application
and my repofe. I shall not be lo often in
the counting-houfe as ufual. I propose to
take you into immediate partnership. But
as I also propose that you shall be at three-
fourths of the trouble, it is but just that
I fhould offer you a proportionable ad-
vantage.---Now as my capital, Harry, is
more than five times as much as yours of
36000l. I offer to your acceptance a full
moiety of all the profits in recompence of
your extraordinary attention and appli
cation...Hear me out...I do not think
that I fhall lose by this bargain. The af-
fairs of Potiphar proipered under the.
hands of young Jofeph; and I believe that
you, alfo, are a favourite of your God.

I could not fpeak. The good man per-
ceived my oppreffion, and catching me
in his arms, and preffing me to his bo-
fom, he thed a filent tear of fatisfaction
upon me, and withdrew without faying
another word.

For feveral days following Mr Golding was employed in advising his correfpondents that I was now become his partner and equal in trade, and I was wearied

with

with congratulations on my being one of the principal merchants in London before I had attained my twentieth year.

The obligations and advantages which this good man thus delighted to heap upon me, incited me to double application and fagacity, and all the eyes of Argus were opened within me for fuperintending and guarding the interefts of my patron.

I have often thought it fomewhat romantic, that I fhould win both my wives by a matter of adventure; fo that their partiality in my favour ought, perhaps, to be afcribed to a fentiment of gratitude, rather than to any liking which they might take to my perfon.

On a day in fummer I rode to Barnet to fettle accounts with Mr Fradgil, a correfpondent of my mafter's, who was faid to be indifpofed at his country-feat. As I approached the town, I obferved an elderly gentlewoman walking leifurely toward me, attended by an orderly train of young maidens. I observed, at the fame time, two men in gliftering apparel, who haftily followed, and, coming quickly up, put all the females to a ftand, and caused them to gather in a group, as for mutual defence. One of the men, however, no way daunted by the oppofition of so numerous a 'company, rudely caught one of