politeness to me grew so very marked, that the good Abbe thought it requisite to have some conversation with me relative to his attentions. And here let me, with confusion, acknowledge my own weakness and folly. I had suffered my eye to forerun my judgment; was already greatly prejudiced in favour of the Count; and I believe had but too plainly discovered these favourable sentiments towards him, by my unguarded looks and behaviour. The good Abbe soon discovered the secret of my heart, which afforded him no satisfaction, because he was apprehensive of the consequences. He explained the nature of his sentiments to me very freely, but with great delicacy. Alas! how unequal was the dictates of prudence, or the cautious advice of age, to combat with a growing partiality in a young mind, a stranger to the world, and entangled by the dangerous superficial advantages of person, and that softness, that insinuating tenderness, which so easily makes its way into an unsuspecting bosom.
