- O Louisa! continued he, if there be any thing beside my
want of merit that impedes my wishes, and you delight not in my torment,
speak it I conjure you.
There is a necessity of denying you in this also, said Louisa; but to
shew you how little I am inclined to be ungrateful, be certain that I
have the highest idea of your merits, and prize them as much as I
ought to do.
These last words, obliging as they were, could not console monsieur du
Plessis for the cruelty, as he termed it, of refusing to let him know
what this invincible obstacle was which put a stop to any further
correspondence between them: he spared neither prayers nor tears to draw
the secret from her, but all were ineffectual; and she at last told him,
that if he pressed her any farther on that head, she must for the future
avoid his presence.
This was a menace which he had not courage to dare the execution of, and
he promised to conform to her will, tho' with such agonies, as shewed
her how much he valued even the little she was pleased to grant; but it
was not in the power of her perswasions to prevail on him to resolve to
make any efforts for the vanquishing his passion; he still protested
that he neither could cease to love her, and her alone, nor even to wish
an alteration in his sentiments.
