Expect it, or be covetous of honours, nor meanly ashamed of accepting
them when offered. And while by this prudent management she secured
herself from any danger of being insulted whenever it should be known
who she was, she also gave no occasion for any one to make too deep an
enquiry into her descent or fortune.
But now the time was arrived when those deficiencies gave her more
anxiety than hitherto they had done; and love in one moment filled her
with those repinings at her fate, which neither vanity or ambition would
ever have had power to do.
Melanthe here, as at Vienna, received the visits of all whose birth,
fortune, or accomplishments, gave them a pretence; but there was none
who paid them so frequently, or which she encouraged with so much
pleasure as those of the count de Bellfleur, a French nobleman belonging
to the above-mentioned prince of Conti: she often told Louisa, when they
were alone, that there was something in the air and manner of behaviour
of this count, which had so perfect a resemblance with that of Henricus,
that tho' it reminded her of that once dear and perfidious man, she
could not help admiring and wishing a frequent sight of him.
