truth, love, and fidelity, as are usual on such occasions.
At another time, Jane would have paused to examine her heart, before she accepted the professions made by her lover, and she would have found no tenderness there that might not be controlled and subdued by reason. But now, driven out from her natural protectors by suspicion and malignant accusation, and touched by the confiding affection that refused to suspect her; the generosity, the magnanimity that were presented in such striking contrast to the baseness of her relations—she received Edward's declarations with the most tender and ingenuous expressions of gratitude; and Erskine did not doubt, nor did Jane at that moment, that this gratitude was firmly rooted in love.
Edward, ardent and impetuous, proposed an immediate marriage: he argued, that it was the only, and would be an effectual, way of protecting her from the persecutions of her aunt.
Jane replied, that she had very little reason to fear that her aunt would communicate to any other person her suspicions. "She had a motive towards you," she added, "that overcame her prudence. I have found a refuge in your heart, and she cannot injure me while I have that asylum. I have too much pride, Edward, to involve you in the reproach I may have to sustain. I had formed a plan this morning, before your generosity translated me from despondency to hope, which I must adhere to, for a few months at
