You shall know, Sir,' turning to Sir William, 'I am no longer a poor dependent upon your favours.

I scorn them.

Nothing can keep Miss Wilmot's fortune from me, which, I thank her father's assiduity, is pretty large.

The articles, and a bond for her fortune, are signed, and safe in my possession.

It was her fortune, not her person, that induced me to wish for this match, and possessed of the one, let who will take the other.' This was an alarming blow, Sir William was sensible of the justice of his claims, for he had been instrumental in drawing up the marriage articles himself.