ABSTRACT
I have related how industrious this deserving pair, my guardian and his nephew, showed themselves, to obtain my good will, and make themselves necessary to me. Nor were they less assiduous in their attentions to my sister, and the admirable matron under whose protection she dwelt upon the New Forest. In the first arrangement that took place after the death of my uncle, Holloway resided in Dorsetshire, my sister at Beaulieu, and I myself had fixed on my abode in Derbyshire. The New Forest therefore was but little out of the road of / the worthy solicitor, whenever he found, or made an occasion of proceeding from his own habitation to mine: and at other times, when he did not purpose this journey, still the distance was but small from the petty fishing-town where he dwelt to the residence of Mrs Willis. Holloway took advantage of this, and was, as I have said, diligent in paying his court to these dwellers on the New Forest. His visits could not be objected to, nay, were agreeable, for 259they always appeared to be prompted by an anxiety for my interests. It had been sufficiently seen, that this hoary practitioner of the law, was no mean adept in the art of turning to his purposes the weak sides of human nature. He did not like to make a single step without Mrs Willis; he had the profoundest respect for her extraordinary penetration. He thought it right, that Henrietta Mandeville should be acquainted with every thing that was done in my affairs: she was my next of kin, and was besides / endowed with a very superior understanding. She saw into things with the quickness of intuition, and her sagacity was still further sharpened by the strength of her affection for me. Mr Holloway also, in the most delicate manner, alluded to my late unfortunate distraction, and my continued melancholy. He observed, that I ought not to be left to myself, nor trusted entirely to my own guidance. In short he had the dexterity, whatever he desired to do, to obtain for it the previous approbation of these ladies; and even, in several instances, to make it seem to have flowed from their suggestion. This is the third example, the first being that of my uncle, and the second of myself, in which this wretched Holloway, without precisely obtaining the good opinion of anyone, made himself a person useful, and almost necessary, while his officious and left-handed interpositions were received, by each party in turn, with acknowledgments and thanks. /
