Your ladyship did but too well foresee the perplexity and uneasiness of
which Madame Duval's letter has been productive. In regard to my answer
I most humbly request your ladyship to write to this effect: "That I
would not upon any account intentionally offend Madame Duval, but that I
have unanswerable reasons for detaining her granddaughter at present in
England."
Complying with the request of Mrs. Mirvan, I would say that I had the
honour to accompany Mr. Evelyn, the grandfather of my young charge, when
upon his travels, in the capacity of a tutor. His unhappy marriage,
immediately upon his return to England, with Madame Duval, then a
waiting-girl at a tavern, contrary to the entreaties of his friends,
induced him to fix his abode in France. He survived the ill-judged
marriage but two years.
Mr. Evelyn left me the sole guardianship of his daughter's person till
her eighteenth year, but in regard to fortune he left her wholly
dependent on her mother. Miss Evelyn was brought up under my care, and,
except when at school, under my roof. In her eighteenth year, her
mother, then married to Monsieur Duval, sent for her to Paris, and at
the instigation of her husband tyrannically endeavoured to effect a
union between Miss Evelyn and one of his nephews. Miss Evelyn soon grew
weary of such usage, and rashly, and without a witness, consented to a
private marriage with Sir John Belmont, a very profligate young man, who
had but too successfully found means to insinuate himself into her
favour. He promised to conduct her to England--he did. O madam, you know
the rest! Disappointed of the fortune he expected by the inexcusable
rancour of the Duvals, he infamously burnt the certificate of their
marriage and denied that they had ever been united!
She flew to my protection, and the moment that gave birth to her infant
put an end at once to the sorrows and the life of its mother. That
child, madam, shall never know the loss she has sustained. Not only my
affection, but my humanity recoils at the barbarous idea of deserting
the sacred trust reposed in me.
_II.--A Visit to Town_