ABSTRACT
A Few of these conversations convinced Sir Edward that the winning manners and lovely person of Ethelinda were her least perfections. The solidity of her understanding, the gentleness of her temper, and the softness of her heart, interested, while the vivacity of her conversation entertained him; and as she every day gained on his good opinion, he could not help reflecting with some concerna on her situation. He had heard, in general conversation, that Colonel Chesterville had only a very small fortune; and from some circumstances which had occurred, he feared that his son’s extravagance, if not his own propensity to gaming, had considerably diminished it: and Sir Edward could not without great pain represent to himself the probability there was that this young woman, so lovely in mind and person, might be left a necessitous dependant on the family of Maltravers; while all his tenderness for Lady Newenden prevented him not from feeling that she had not that temper which was likely to soften or diminish the miseries of such dependance.
