CHAPTER VII.
Miss Clare, we may be sure, made her brother very happy, when she told him of the engagement she had made for the morrow, and how delighted she had been with his handsome friend.
Allan, I believe, got little sleep that night.

I know not, whether joy be not a more troublesome bedfellow than grief--hope keeps a body very wakeful, I know.
Elinor Clare was the best good creature--the least selfish human being I ever knew--always at work for other people's good, planning other people's happiness--continually forgetful to consult for her own personal gratifications, except indirectly, in the welfare of another; while her parents lived, the most attentive of daughters--since they died, the kindest of sisters--I never knew but _one_ like her.

It happens that I have some of this young lady's _letters_ in my possession--I shall present my reader with one of them.

It was written a short time after the death of her mother, and addressed to a cousin, a dear friend of Elinor's, who was then on the point of being married to Mr.Beaumont, of Staffordshire, and had invited Elinor to assist at her nuptials.

I will transcribe it with minute fidelity.
ELINOR CLARE TO MARIA LESLIE.
Widford, July the -- , 17--.
Health, Innocence, and Beauty, shall be thy bride-maids, my sweet cousin.