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satisfactory, till her eighteenth year, when a letter ⟨came⟩ with tidings, that without any known ⟨cause⟩, she had eloped. A severe illness that ⟨threatened⟩ my dissolution, followed this intelligence; cvery effort to discover her was ⟨unavailing⟩. Thus misery weighs down my ⟨declining⟩ years; and I live in torturing doubt ⟨as⟩ to my child, my Ellinor. Last night I was ⟨diseovered⟩ by some peasants at my favourite ⟨occupation⟩ in the Abbey ruins. I will not be ⟨a⟩ theme for babbling tongues; I have taken my old domestic with me, and I quit this place, ⟨perhaps⟩, for ever.———Will you, then, pity ⟨a⟩ miserable old man, and commiserate his fate. Talk of him as little as possible; but when ⟨his⟩ name is mentioned, do that justice to his memory, which these memoirs enable you.—Thy breast is pure, tny slumbers are sweet! may they ever be so.—Farewell." Barnwell's uncle, mother, and the tender-hearted Eliza, to whom he eommunicated the melancholy tale, ⟨united⟩ in commiserating the sufferings of a man, whose life, almost from his infancy, had been marked with disappointment and sorrow.
In a few days George quitted his uncle's hospitable roof, which still remained the asylum of his mother and Eliza. Sir James had given his nephew three thousand pounds, and a further seven thousand was to be given at the expiration of the time for which he was articled, on condition of his being admitted into ⟨a⟩ share of the concern. Mr Freeman, the elder partner of the firm, resided wholly in the conntry with his lovely daughter, the amitble Maria; he was a widower, and not being
