She had a considerable annuity to live on,
and very regularly parted with every shilling she could spare
to this darling of hers, to the no little heart-burn of his
father; who was vex'd, not that she by this means fed his
son's extravagance, but that she preferr'd Charles to him-
self; and we shall too soon see what a fatal turn such a
mercenary jealousy could operate in the breast of a father.
Charles was, however, by the means of his grand-
mother's lavish fondness, very sufficiently enabled to keep
a mistress so easily contented as my love made me; and my
good fortune, for such I must ever call it, threw me in his
way, in the manner above related, just as he was on the
look-out for one.
As to temper, the even sweetness of it made him seem
born for domestic happiness: tender, naturally polite, and
gentle-manner'd; it could never be his fault if ever jars
or animosities ruffled a calm he was so qualified in every
way to maintain or restore. Without those great or shining
qualities that constitute a genius, or are fit to make a
noise in the world, he had all those humble ones that com-
pose the softer social merit: plain common sense, set off
with every grace of modesty and good nature, made him, if
not admir'd, what is much happier, universally belov'd and
esteem'd. But, as nothing but the beauties of his person
had at first attracted my regard and fix'd my passion,
neither was I then a judge of that internal merit, which I
had afterward full occasion to discover, and which perhaps,
in that season of giddiness and levity, would have touch'd
my heart very little, had it been lodg'd in a person less
the delight of my eyes and idol of my senses.
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