She is thought to be frank,
open-hearted, communicative; nay, she passes herself upon us in those
characters: she sees we keep nothing from her. She has been acquainted
with your love before wedlock; with my folly, in relation to Anderson:
she has carried her head above a score or two of men not contemptible.
She sits enthroned among us, while we make but common figures at her
footstool: she calls us sisters, friends, and twenty pretty names. Let
us acquaint her, that we see into her heart; and why Lord D---- and
others are so indifferent with her. If she is ingenuous, let us spare
her; if not, leave me to punish her--Yet we will keep up her punctilio as
to our brother; we will leave him to make his own discoveries. She may
confide in his politeness; and the result will be happier for her;
because she will then be under no restraint to us, and her native freedom
of heart may again take its course.
Agreed, agreed, said Lady L----. And arm-in-arm, we entered your
dressing-room, dismissed the maid, and began the attack--And, O Harriet!
how you hesitated, paraded, fooled on with us, before you came to
confession! Indeed you deserved not the mercy we shewed you--So, child,
you had better to have let this part of your story sleep in peace.
You bid me not tell Emily, that your cousin is in love with her: but I
think I will. Girls begin very early to look out for admirers.
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