Adeline Mowbray; or, The Mother and Daughter

by Amelia Opie

'But what of my mother?'

'She is a miserable woman, as she deserved to be—an old fool.'

'Pray do not call her so; to hear she is miserable is torment sufficient to me:—where is she?'

'Still at the Pavilion: but she is going to let Rosevalley, retire to her estate in Cumberland, and live unknown and unseen.'

'But will she not allow me to live with her?'

'What! as Mr Glenmurray's mistress? receive under her roof the seducer of her daughter?'

'Sir, I am no seducer.'

'No,' cried Adeline: 'I became the mistress of Mr Glenmurray from the dictates of my reason, not my weakness or his persuasions.'

'Humph!' replied the doctor, 'I should expect to find such reason in Moorfields: besides, had not Mr Glenmurray's books turned your head, you would not have thought it pretty and right to become the mistress of any man: so he is your seducer, after all.'

'So far I plead guilty,' replied Glenmurray; 'but whatever my opinions are, I have ever been willing to sacrifice them to the welfare of Miss Mowbray, and have, from the first moment that we were safe from pursuit, been urgent to marry her.'