Pleased As She Was With The Presence Of The Only Man Who Had Ever Had
Power Of Inspiring Her With
One tender thought, yet a thousand times she
had wished him gone before he went, that she might be at
Liberty to give
vent to the struggling passions which were more than once ready to throw
her into a swoon. The perfections she saw in the person of her
lover; - the respect he treated her with, notwithstanding the violence of
the passion he was possessed of; - the sincerity that appeared in all his
looks and words; - the generosity of his behaviour in regard to her
fortune; - all the qualifications that would have made any other woman
blessed in the offer of such a heart, served but to make her wretched,
since she could not look on herself in a condition capable of
accepting it.
Alas! du Plessis, cried she, little do you think to whom you would ally
yourself: - you would, you say, despise a portion, but would you marry a
foundling, a child of charity, one that has neither name nor friends,
and who, in her best circumstances, is but a poor dependant, a servant
in effect, tho' not in shew, and owes her very cloaths to the bounty of
another? - Oh! why did the mistaken goodness of Dorilaus give me any
other education than such as befitted my wretched fortune! Better I had
been bred an humble drudge, and never been taught how to distinguish
merit: - What avail the accomplishments that cost him so much money, and
me so much pains to acquire, but to attract a short-liv'd admiration,
which, when I am truly known, will be succeeded with an adequate
derision:
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