- I Should Be
Looked Upon As The Bane Of Your Glory; - As One Whose Artifices Had
Ensnared You Into A Forgetfulness Of What You Owed To Yourself And
Family, And Be Despised And Hated By All Who Have A Regard For
You.
- This, monsieur, continued she, is what I cannot bear, neither for
your sake nor my own, and entreat you will no farther urge a suit, which
all manner of considerations forbid me to comply with.
The firmness and resolution with which she uttered these words, threw
him into the most violent despair; and here might be seen the difference
between a sincere and counterfeited passion: the one is timid, fearful
of offending, and modest even to its own loss; - the other presuming,
bold, and regardless of the consequences, presses, in spight of
opposition, to its desired point.
Louisa had too much penetration not to make this distinction: she saw
the truth of his affection in his grief, and that awe which deterred him
from expressing what he felt: - she sympathized in all his pains, and for
every sigh his oppressed heart sent forth, her own wept tears of blood;
yet not receding from the resolution she had formed, nothing could be
more truly moving than the scene between them.
At length he ceased to mention marriage, but conjured her to consider
the snares which would be continually laid, by wicked and designing men,
for one so young and beautiful: - that she could go no where without
finding other Bellfleurs; and she might judge, by the danger she had
just now so narrowly escaped, of the probability of being involved again
in the same:
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