It is with gratitude to Heaven, that I find my dear friends at Heathcot, are relieved from their too tender anxieties and apprehensions on my account, yet wherefore do I say “too tender,” I recall the words, my Lucy, which my heart does not sanction, and I will not assume a virtue I have not; I give you joy, that death has spared to you your Rachel Cowley. I rejoice in your love; and I participate in your present feelings. Your goodness to Horace has contributed towards my restoration. I should have died, had you mentioned your terrors to him.
I have written to him the state of affairs here. He will be satisfied, that the recent events, in which I have been engaged, occasioned the brevity of my letter.
Mrs. Heartley sends her love to you with the enclosed: she insists, that you will be better pleased with it, than with my labours. They have, amongst them, annihilated the self will of your
Rachel Cowley.
LETTER LXXI.
From Mr. Serge to Mrs. Heartley.
(Enclosed in the preceding.)
Madam, Putney.
I make no doubt, but that you have heard Mr. Maclairn mention his friend Jeremiah Serge; and that you are convinced, I mean to deserve my title. I shall, therefore, enter into the business before us at once. Herewith you will receive the deeds, which secure to your daughter and her children the estate called the Wenland Farm, now occupied by Malcolm Maclairn; the day she becomes that gentleman’s wife, he is her tenant and his children’s steward. Counsellor Steadman has managed this affair for me, to my entire satisfaction, and I trust it will not be less so to my young friend.
I have, for the first time, during many long weeks, felt that the Almighty has yet the means in his hands with which to heal my wounds. I never, Mrs. Heartley, had a son; I have not, like Sir Murdoch, had a son like his Malcolm, to follow me in my feeble steps, with duty and affection; nor try to perpetuate my name, and his own virtues to children unborn; but I had a child, who was, whilst she lived, the joy and the prop of my life! But you know what I have had to suffer! I am forgetting the object of this letter.
From the first hour I knew Mr. Malcolm Maclairn, I took a liking to him; this goodwill was, in part, owing to the favourable character I had of him from my excellent friend, Counsellor Steadman. Some particulars I learned from this gentleman, led me to think that it was in my power to serve this worthy young man; and with this intention, and other thoughts in my mind, I paid my visit to Farefield Hall. I was in part disappointed in my scheme; but I saw the young man was all, and more, than I expected, and I gave him my heart, though I could not give him my daughter’s hand. I thought I had explained myself to his good father, in regard to my views in assisting the son; but I perceived, that Sir Murdoch had a little of the infirmity, which is common to men of high birth; so I consulted the counsellor, and did what I could without offending the baronet’s high spirit.