Would wish to place you in a convent, the
choice of which shall be your own, provided it
may be where I sometimes may be allowed to
pay my vows to you thro' the grate, till time
shall have sufficiently proved my fidelity, and
you shall prevail on yourself to recempence my
flame, by bestowing on me your hand and heart: - the
one I would not ask without the other;
but both together would render the happiest of
mankind.
Your eternally devoted
Du Plessis.
P.S. As I perceive it will be next to an impossibility
to gain a sight of you while you continue
with that ungenerous woman, I entreat
to know by a line how I stand in your opinion,
and if the offers I make you, in the sincerity
of my soul, may be thought worthy
your acceptance."
This epistle he ordered his valet de chambre to give to her own hand, if
there were a possibility of it; and the fellow so well executed his
commission, being acquainted with Melanthe's servants, that he was
carried directly up to her chamber. She was a little surprized to see
him, because she knew it was contrary to Melanthe's commands that any
one should see her; and doubted not but to find she was treated with any
kind of respect, would enhance her ill humour to her.
