at any time allowed, from which I could derive but a trifling pecuniary advantage to myself only, which must subject me to the talk of the country, and drag me into public notice as an object of compassion for past injuries, and of curiosity for the claims and circumstances so mortifying, which I must adduce to prove my rights; advantages attained under all these considerations would be to me more humiliating than indigence if unnoticed.
Had the Count acknowledged me in the life time of my father, my duty, and regard for his honour, would certainly have made me act very differently, and then, my dear Countess, I should not have known the superior nobleness of your mind, so different from the jealousy and hatred a narrow and contracted heart would have felt towards an object who had, however innocently, interrupted her happiness.
Never, were I to live a thousand years, shall I forget your kind visit, and subsequent
