Would treat her in any other manner than a
companion, and that tho' she would make her a yearly allowance for
cloaths and card-money, yet she would expect no other service from her
than fidelity to her secrets, and affection to her person.
From the moment this agreement was made, the young Louisa regained her
complection and her appetite; and being now initiated into the family of
this lady, had no longer any care to take than to oblige her, a thing
not difficult, Melanthe being good-natured, and strongly prepossessed in
favour of her new friend, for so she vouchsafed to call her, and to use
her accordingly.
As a proof of it, she made her in a very short time the confident of her
dearest secrets: they were one day sitting together, when accidentally
some mention was made of the power of love. You are too young, Louisa,
said Melanthe, to have experienced the wonderful effects of that passion
in yourself, and therefore cannot be expected to have much compassion
for what it can inflict on others.
Indeed, madam, answered she, tho' I never have yet seen a man who gave
me a moment's pain on that score, yet I believe there are no emotions
whatever so strong as those of love, and that it is capable of
influencing people of the best sense to things which in their nature
they are most averse to.
Well, my dear, resumed the other, since I find you have so just a notion
of it, I will confide in your discretion so far as to let you know, that
but for an ungrateful man, I had not looked on my native country as a
desart, and resolved to seek a cure for my ill-treated and abused
tenderness in foreign parts.
My quality, continued she, I need not inform you of; you have doubtless
heard that my family yields to few in antiquity, and that there is an
estate belonging to it sufficient to support the dignity of its title;
but my father having many children, could not give very great portions
to the daughters: I was therefore disposed of, much against my
inclinations, to a nobleman, whom my unlucky charms had so much
captivated as to make him not only take me with no other dowry than my
cloaths and jewels, but also to settle a large jointure upon me, which,
he being dead, I at present enjoy. I cannot say that all the obligations
he laid upon me could engage a reciprocal regard: - I behaved with
indifference to him while living, and little lamented him when dead: not
that I was prepossessed in favour of any other man; - my heart, entirely
free, was reserved to be the conquest of the too charming perfidious
Henricus, who arriving soon after my lord's decease, and bringing with
him all the accomplishments which every different court he had visited
could afford, join'd to the most enchanting person nature ever formed,
soon made me know I was not that insensible creature I had
thought myself.
I happened to be at court when he came to kiss her majesty's hand on his
return; and whether it was that my eyes testified too much the
admiration this first sight of him struck me with, or that he really
discovered something more attractive in me than any lady in the presence
I know not, but he seemed to distinguish me in a particular manner, and
I heard him say to my lord G - - n in a whisper, that I was the finest
woman he had ever seen; but what gave me more pleasure than even this
praise, was an agreement I heard made between him and the same lord to
go that evening to a raffle at mrs. C - rt-s - r's. I was one of those who
had put in, tho' if I had not, I should certainly, have gone for a
second sight of him, who when he went out of the drawing-room seemed to
have left me but half myself.
In fine, I went, and had there wanted any thing to have entirely
vanquished me, my conqueror's manner of address had done it with a form
less agreeable. - O Louisa, pursued she with a sigh, if you have never
seen or heard the charming Henricus, you can have no notion of what is
excellent in man; such flowing wit; - such softness in his voice and
air; - but there is no describing what he is. He seemed all transport at
meeting me there; among a number of ladies I alone engrossed him: he
scarce spoke to any other; and being so fortunate to win the raffle,
which was a fine inlaid India cabinet, instead of sending it to his own
house, he privately ordered his servant to leave it at mine, lord G - - n
having, as he afterwards told me, informed him where I lived, and also
all the particulars he wanted to know concerning me.
I was prodigiously surprized when I came home and found the Cabinet,
which my woman imagined I had won by its being brought thither. It was
indeed a piece of gallantry I had no reason to expect from one so
perfect a stranger to me; and this, joined with the many complaisant
things he said to me at mrs. C - rt-f - r's, flattered my vanity enough to
make me think he was no less charmed with me than I too plainly found I
was with him. I slept little that night, and pretty early the next
morning received a billet from him to this effect:
MADAM,
'I thought the cabinet we raffled for was more
properly the furniture of a lady's closet than
mine, especially one who must daily receive a
great number of such epistles as it was doubtless
intended by the maker to contain:
