a desire to visit his mother; and, with his consent (for he never pretended a right to contradict his friends because they were obliged to him), set out in three days. I shall never forget the look he gave me when we parted; good-nature, tenderness, and yet a fear of displeasing were all so mixed, that had I not seen it, I should have thought it impossible for any person, in one moment, to have expressed such various thoughts.
"When he was gone I could not command myself enough to sit in company, but got away by myself into a solitary walk, where I might be at liberty to give a vent to my sorrows and reflect in what manner I should act to extricate myself out of these difficulties. I resolved, let what would be the consequence, absolutely to refuse Vieuville; but then I feared, if he should persist in his love, what my brother would suffer in his wife's continual importunities. At last it came into my head to try if he was generous enough to conquer his own passion, rather than be the cause of my being unhappy.
"I accordingly took the first opportunity that offered of speaking to Vieuville alone, and told him, as he had often professed a great love for me, it was now in his power to prove whether those professions were real, or only the flights of youth, and the effect of a warm imagination; for that my happiness or misery depended on his conduct. He began to swear that he would fly to obey my commands, and should think it the greatest pleasure he was capable of enjoying to be honoured with them. I desired him to hear me out; and told him, that, for reasons I could not then inform him, it was impossible for me ever to marry him without making myself the most wretched of all mortals; and although it was indeed in my own power to refuse him, yet, in consideration of his being Dorimene's brother, and that the seeing him uneasy made her so, I entreated it as the greatest favour of
