- If Therefore I Am
Not So Unhappy As To Be Hated By You, Let Not
Vain Punctilloes Divide Us, And, As The First Proof
Of My Inviolable Passion, Permit Me To Remove
You From A Place Where You Have Met With Such
Unworthy Treatment:
- I hope you wrong me
not so far as to suspect I any other designs
on you than such
As are consistent with the
strictest honour; but to prevent all scruples of
that nature from entering your gentle breast, I
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. But she said
nothing that discovered her sentiments on this point, and with all the
appearance of a perfect ease of mind, asked what he had to deliver to
her. Only a song, mademoiselle, answered he, which my master ordered me
to give you, and to desire you will let him know how you like it: - he
says it might be turned into an admirable duetto, and begs you would
employ your genius on that score and send it by me.
Poor Louisa, who took his words literally, and thought her present
circumstances too discordant for the fulfilling his request, opened the
supposed piece of music with an aking heart; but when she had perused
it, and found the artifice her lover had made use of to communicate his
generous intentions to her, it is extremely fine, said she to the valet,
and I will do what he requires to the best of my power, but fear I shall
not be able to give it such a turn as he may expect. If you please,
continued she, to wait a little, I shall not be long before I dispatch
you. In speaking these words she went into her closet, and read over and
over the offers he had made, in which, with the strictest examination,
she could find nothing but what indicated the most perfect love, honour,
and generosity. In the first transports of her soul she was tempted to
comply; but her second thoughts were absolutely against it. - Those very
reasons which would have prevailed with almost any other woman, made her
obstinate to refuse: - the more she found him worthy, the less could she
support the thoughts of giving him a beggar for a wife; and the more she
loved him, the less could she content to be obliged to him; so she took
but a small time for consideration, before she returned an answer in
these terms:
To the most accomplished, and most generous monsieur DU PLESSIS.
"As it was not owing to my pride or vanity,
but merely compliance with the will of
Melanthe, that my real meanness was made a
secret, I find it revealed without any mortification;
but, monsieur, the distance between us
is not shortened by being known: as the consciousness
of my unworthiness remains with
me, and ever must do so, I again repeat the
impossibility of accepting your too generous passion,
and, after this, you will not wonder I
should refuse those other obliging offers you are
so good to make. - I left my native country
with Melanthe, devoted myself to her service
while she was pleased to continue me in it, and
only wait her commands for my doing so, or to
return to England. - I believe, by what her
woman told me this day, the latter will be my
fate. - Think not, however, most truly worthy
of your whole sex, that I want eyes to distinguish
your merits, or a heart capable of being
influenced by them, perhaps too deeply for my
own future peace: - this is a confession I would
not have made, were I ever to see you more;
but as I am determined to shut myself from all
the world during my abode at Venice, I thought
I owed this little recompence to the generous
affection you express for me, and had rather you
should think any thing of me, than that I am
ungrateful.
LOUISA.
P.S. I beg, monsieur, after this, you will not
attempt either to speak or write to me."
When she had sent this away, she fell into fresh complainings at the
severity of her fate, which constrained her to refuse what most she
languished for: - the uncertainty how she should be disposed of was also
a matter of grief: - she was at this time a prisoner in Melanthe's house:
she had sent several messages to that lady, by her woman, entreating to
know in what she had offended, but could receive no other answer than
abuses, without one word which gave her the least light into the cause
of this strange treatment; but that morning she was informed, by the
same woman, that her Lady protested she should never more come into her
presence, and that she would send her home:
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