“The unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship anywhere.”

“No,” replied he, with sudden consciousness, “not to find it in you ; for I cannot be ignorant that to you, to your goodness, I owe it all. I feel it⁠—I would express it if I could⁠—but, as you well know, I am no orator.”

“You are very much mistaken. I do assure you that you owe it entirely, at least almost entirely, to your own merit, and Colonel Brandon’s discernment of it. I have had no hand in it. I did not even know, till I understood his design, that the living was vacant; nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift. As a friend of mine, of my family, he may, perhaps⁠—indeed I know he has , still greater pleasure in bestowing it; but, upon my word, you owe nothing to my solicitation.”