He says (and indeed there is some truth in it) that nowadays, the best plan for a man to make himself popular is to be sent to Newgate; and the best chance that a girl has of a coronet, is to become an actress.

Well, I did not much like the idea; but at last I consented.

Isabel, my youngest, is, you know, very handsome in her person, and sings remarkably well, and we arranged that she should go on first; and, if she succeeded, that her sister Charlotte should follow her; but Isabel is of a very obstinate disposition, and when we proposed it to her, she peremptorily refused, and declared that she would go out as a governess, or anything, rather than consent.

I tried what coaxing would do, and her father tried threatening; but all was in vain.

This was about a year ago, and she is now only seventeen; but she ever was a most decided, a most obstinate character." "Very undutiful, indeed, ma'am; she might have been a duchess before this:--a very foolish girl, indeed, ma'am," observed the gentleman.
"Well, Mr Heaviside, we then thought that Charlotte, our eldest, had the next best chance of success.