One of the many indulgences granted to Agnes was the frequent permission of giving juvenile balls at home, or of attending those to which she was invited. With the gay cotemporaries thus brought together it is true she was sedulously restricted from forming any intimacy: but at least it was pleasant to mix with them for a few hours; it gave her manners more polish, taught her the usages of society, and prevented her contracting that old-fashioned / preciseness so often observed in girls who live entirely with grown-up persons.

Mr. Wharton was in the habit of making frequent trips to England, and on his return from one of these, he brought back with him a very handsome youth, whom he introduced to Mrs. Marchmont and Agnes by the name of Harry Cowley. It was during the most animated period of one of the above mentioned youthful balls. The new comer was presented as a partner to the mistress of the revels, and danced with an ease and vivacity not often seen in an English school boy; for such was still Harry Cowley. Agnes was caught by his expressive and ever-varying countenance and the careless sprightliness of his conversation. He told her, that he was a ward of Mr. Wharton's, a distant relation, a sort of cousin, fifty times removed! – ‘He came to bid me good bye’ added the communicative lad, ‘the day before our midsummer holidays were to begin, and I assailed him with such irresistable importunity for permission to accompany him abroad, that / I gained my point almost whether he would or no. Now I am here, I intend to see every thing that is to be seen in Paris, and I promise myself more amusement than I ever yet enjoyed in my life.’

‘Do you speak French?’ enquired Agnes. ‘Very vilely, as most English boys do, who are taught it at school: but I understand it tolerably.