ABSTRACT
All that passed in the two hours’ conversation between the discarded baronet and the mother of his late mistress did not transpire; but Mrs Beaumont said that she had taken infinite pains to reconcile sir John to his fate, and his subsequent behaviour showed that she had succeeded. His attention towards her also plainly proved that he was not dissatisfied by the part she had acted, or rather by the part that he thought she had acted. Thus all things went on smoothly. Mrs Beaumont, in confidence, told her friend, miss Hunter, that sir John had behaved with the greatest propriety and candour (candour! that hackneyed word); that he had acknowledged that his principal inducement to propose for her daughter had been a desire to be / connected with a family for which he had such peculiar regard.
