CHAPTER III.
"And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill,
Where no ill seems."
Milton.
It was one of Sir Howard's established maxims to take every opportunity of making advances upon the virtue of those whose beauty animated his efforts, and who were not sufficiently guarded to resist his attacks. Marriage, unconnected with worldly views, had never gained admission to his thoughts. Wealth, his idol, governed, and rendered every other inchnation subordinate.
Thus, how inconsistent might seem his pursuit of Rosilia, she who had little else but her fair self to bestow, adorned by virtue, gifted by talent, recommendations undoubtedly more than equivalent for his adventitious circumstances and the boasted honour attached to his title! Why, in withdrawing herself from his adulations, did he persevere in obtruding them upon her, perfectly assured, as he might be, that those seductions, hitherto so triumphant with the many, with Rosilia could no longer avail him! From the knowledge he had acquired of her, he could not for one moment entertain the bare suggestion of subduing her virtue! To
