No otherwise than
I have ever done, answered she. My heart is filled with duty, reverence
and gratitude, of which your goodness is the only source: as for any
other sort of love I know not what it is; were it a voluntary emotion,
believe me, sir, I gladly would give it entrance into my soul, but I
well see it is of a far different nature.
Yet is your person at your own disposal, resumed he; and when possessed
of that, the flame which burns so fiercely in my breast, in time may
kindle one in yours. In speaking these words he took her in his arms,
and kissed her with a vehemence which the prodigious respect she bore to
him, as the patron and benefactor of herself and brother, could alone
have made her suffer. - Her eyes however sparkled with indignation, tho'
her tongue was silent, and at last bursting from his embrace, this, sir,
cried she, is not the way to make me think as you would have me. As in
this action he had no way transgressed the rules of decency, he could
ill brook the finding her so much alarmed at it; and would have
testified his resentment, had not the excess of his love, which is ever
accompanied with an adequate share of respect, obliged him to stifle it.
Well, Louisa, said he, looking earnestly upon her, ungenerously do you
requite what I have done for you; but I, perhaps, may bring myself to
other sentiments.
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