ABSTRACT
Lord Montagu had from the first been extremely dissatisfied with the appointment of Holloway, as executor to my uncle’s will, and guardian to me and my sister. This worthy limb of the law had practised his delusions successfully on Audley Mandeville, for Audley Mandeville was totally without knowledge of the world, or communication with his fellow-creatures. He had deceived the ladies at the Cottage, for they were of an ingenuous and confiding character, and whatever was told them with gravity and smoothness, whatever story was conveyed to them, that was constructed / with art, and varnished over with unabashed speciousness and fluency, would perhaps at all times have produced in them conviction. Holloway was too fat and too smug to look, in their eyes, like a knave; and the silver-tongued and even-tempered Mallison they could 300hardly have prevailed on themselves to distrust. In a word, neither Mrs Willis nor Henrietta, though both of them gifted with a sound understanding and an exquisite taste, were formed to detect the wiles of the crafty, and to drive knavery and imposture out of the world. They had indeed, particularly Mrs Willis, their strong predilections in behalf of certain maxims and establishments in church and state. It would have been somewhat difficult to have inspired Mrs Willis with a cordial sentiment, for an Oliverian, a or a republican. But whatever did not strike at these foundations, was sure to be regarded by her, with a temper prone to favourable interpretation.
