- Where It Is Accompanied
With The Strictest Honour, Constancy, Purity, And All The Requisites
That Constitute What Is Called A
Perfect passion, there are ordinarily
so many difficulties in the way to the completion of its wishes, that
the breast
Which harbours it must endure a continual agitation, which
surely none would chuse to be involved in.
Ah! madam, how little are you capable of judging of this passion, said
he; there is a delicacy in love which renders even its pains pleasing,
and how much soever a lover suffers, the thoughts of for whom he suffers
is more than a compensation; I am myself an instance of this truth: - I
am a lover: - conscious unworthiness of a suitable return of affection,
and a thousand other impediments lie between me and hope, yet would I
not change this dear anxiety for that insipid case I lived in before I
saw the only object capable of making me a convert to love. - It is
certain my passion is yet young; but a few days has given it root which
no time, no absence, no misfortune ever can dislodge. - The charming maid
is ignorant of her conquest: - the carnival draws near to a
conclusion. - I must return to the army, and these cruel circumstances
oblige me either to make a declaration which she may possibly condemn as
too abrupt, or go and leave her unknowing of my heart, and thereby
deprive myself even of her pity: - Which party, madam, shall I
take? - Will the severe extreme, to which I am driven, be sufficient to
attone for a presumption which else would merit her disdain?
Louisa must have been as dull as she was really the contrary, not to
have known all this was meant to herself; and the pleasing confusion
which this discovery infused thro' all her veins, made her at the same
time sensible of the difference she put between him and all those who
before had entertained her on that subject; but not knowing presently
whether she ought to attribute it to her good or ill fortune, she was
wholly at a loss how to behave, and, to avoid giving any direct answer,
still affected an air of pleasantry.
See, cried she, the little reason you, have to speak in the praise of
love; for if pity be all you have to hope for from your, mistress, I am
afraid the consolation will be no way adequate to the misfortune.
Yet if you vouchsafe me that, replied he, kissing her hard, I never
shall complain. Me! interrupted she, pretending the utmost astonishment,
and drawing her chair somewhat farther from him. Yes, beautiful Louisa,
resumed he; it is you alone who have been capable of teaching me what
love truly is: - your eyes, at first sight, subdued my heart; but your
virtue has since made a conquest of my soul: - if I dare hope to make you
mine, it is only by such ways as heaven, and those who have the power of
disposing you, shall approve:
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