ABSTRACT
It is proper that the inquisitive reader should know how Julia came to be the reigning sovereign of Morley-house. Shortly after Mrs. Morley’s departure for the continent, her husband received a letter from Julia, informing him, that Martha had set out for Spa with lord Francis Sherville, while she was disconsolate for the loss of her mother, and left wholly unprotected to combat her affliction. Mr. Morley, who had always evinced a partiality for Julia, now invited her to pass her days of mourning at the manor house; where her merits and her sensibility would be properly appreciated. Julia had wasted many months in unbounded dissipation; she had indulged the capricious feelings of her heart, even at the expence of every moral virtue. Weary of the swift routine of folly and of vice, and stung by the remembrance of her past duplicity, she resolved on laying siege to the heart of Mr. Morley, for three reasons: first, because he was rich and had no heir; secondly, because he was declining rapidly to the grave; and thirdly, because being a near relation, the purity of her character would not be violated by her claiming his avowed protection.
