Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/114

appears rather extraordinary you should not have well informed yourself of the Count's character and circumstances, previous to your consent for addressing Miss d'Allenberg." "You cannot suppose, my young friend," answered he, 'that I neglected a duty so important to a parent. I actually did make inquiries, the gentleman at whose house we met with him, told me, that he was a widower; that he had married some time ago a ward of his uncle's, who died soon after she was brought to bed. His father, he said, had been killed in a duel by an officer, on account of an old regimental quarrel;—and that he had the misfortune to lose his worthy uncle very shortly after, for whom he then wore mourning. In short, my friend represented him as a worthy young man, who had met with great distresses from the premature death of his connexions, and congratulated me on the power of restoring him to happiness, by giving him the hand of my daughter."