Page 341 (1/2)

Resigning herself to inevitable fate by leses, and subht upon it, of

which she had foreseen the likelihood in her intervieith Arthur,

Mrs Gowan handsoress to, and happy arrival at, this resolution, she was possibly

influenced, not only by her maternal affections but by three politic

considerations

Of these, the first nified the

smallest intention to ask her consent, or any mistrust of his ability

to dispense with it; the second, that the pension bestowed upon her by a

grateful country (and a Barnacle) would be freed from any little filial

inroads, when her Henry should beonly child of

a man in very easy circumstances; the third, that Henry's debtsby his father-in-law

When, to these three-fold points of prudence there is added the fact that

Mrs Gowan yielded her consent the

yielded his, and that Mr Meagles's objection to the , it becoht of

probability that the relict of the deceased Co

particular, turned these ideas in her sagaciousher connections and acquaintances, however, she nity of the blood of the Barnacles, by