Now you are so serious, Harriet, it is time to have done with the
subject.
I have no sleep in my eyes; and must go on. What keeps me more wakeful
is, my real concern for this naughty Miss Grandison, and my pity for Lord
G----; for the instance I have given you of her petulance is nothing to
what I have seen: but I thought, so near the day, she would have changed
her behaviour to him. Surely, the situation her brother is in, without
any fault of his own, might convince her, that she need not go out of her
path to pick up subjects for unhappiness.
Such a kittenish disposition in her, I called it; for it is not so much
the love of power that predominates in her mind, as the love of
playfulness: and when the fit is upon her, she regards not whether it is
a china cup, or a cork, that she pats and tosses about. But her sport
will certainly be the death of Lord G----'s happiness. Pity that Sir
Charles, who only has power over her, is obliged to go abroad so soon!
But she has principles: Lady Grandison's daughter, Sir Charles
Grandison's sister, must have principles. The solemnity of the occasion;
the office; the church; the altar;--must strike her: The vow--Will she
not regard the vow she makes in circumstances so awful? Could but my
Lord G---- assume dignity, and mingle raillery with it, and be able to
laugh with her, and sometimes at her, she would not make him her sport:
she would find somebody else: A butt she must have to shoot at: but I am
afraid he will be too sensible of her smartness: and she will have her
jest, let who will suffer by it.
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