Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/255

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three in the afternoon, she breathed her last; a premature and fatal victim to the excess of parental indulgence, which at so youthful an age suffered her to follow her girlish fancy, and to become the wife of a man whose merits they had never known, and had much reason to doubt.

As a father, Etterick was tenderly afflicted by the death of his daughter, and in such melancholy circumstances. Nevertheless, when the first shock being over, allowed time and opportunity for reflexion, he could not help acknowledging to himself, and to his friends, the clergyman and physician, that he had very strong grounds of consolation. At first he had been hurried and surprized to consent to the marriage of his child, rather than persuaded and induced, and during many years had regarded the connection with abhorrence. The family