As He Had Spent
Many Years In A Continual Course Of Gallantry, And Had Made And Broke A
Thousand Engagements,
He easily found expedients for throwing off his
intercourse with Melanthe, but none that could give him the least
prospect
Of success in his designs on Louisa while they lived together
and continued friends: to part them therefore was his aim, and to
accomplish it the following method came into his head.
On his first acquaintance with these ladies his design was wholly on
Louisa, but meeting a rebuff from her, his vanity rather than his
inclinations had made him turn his devoirs to Melanthe, who too easily
yielding to his suit, served but to heighten his desires for the other:
the extravagant fondness of that unhappy woman rendering her visibly
uneasy at even the ordinary civilities she saw him behave with to any
other, discovered to him that jealousy was not the least reigning foible
of her foul, and the surest means to make her hate that person whom it
was not the interest of his passion she should continue to love. When
they were alone together one day at the place of their usual rendezvous,
in the midst of the most tender endearments, he asked suddenly if she
had ever made Louisa the confident of his happiness. She was a little
surprized at the question, but answered that she had not, and desired to
know the reason of that demand; because, cried he, I am very certain she
is no friend to our loves; and by the manner in which she behaves to me,
whenever she has the least opportunity of shewing her ill humour, I
imagined she either knew or suspected the affair between us.
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