Let me ask you, my
dear--Have you any expectation, that the first of men (I will call him
so) and the loveliest and most amiable-minded of women, can come
together?--You sighed, you know, when you mentioned, that Sir Charles was
soon to leave England; and you own that he has not made addresses to you
--Don't be uneasy, my love!--We women, in these tender cases, see into
each other's hearts from small openings--Look upon me as your mother--
What say you, love?
Your ladyship compliments me with delicacy and frankness--It is too hard
a question, if I have any of the first, to answer without blushes. A
young woman to be supposed to have an esteem for a man, who has made no
declarations, and whose behaviour to her is such only as shews a
politeness to which he is accustomed, and only the same kind of
tenderness as he shews to his sisters;--and whom sometimes he calls
sister--as if--Ah, madam, how can one answer?
You have answered, my dear, and with that delicacy and frankness too,
which make a principal part of your character. If my son (and he shall
not be encouraged in his hopes, if he sees you not, mind as well as
person, with his mother's eyes) should not be able to check himself by
the apprehensions he has had reason for, of being but a second man in the
favour of the object of his wishes [We, my dear, have our delicacies];
could you not allow him a second place in your favour, that might, in
time, as he should merit, and as you should subdue your prepossessions,
give him a first?--Hush--my dear, for one moment--Your honour, your
piety, are my just dependence; and will be his.
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