as they could not approve
of, it was that which had rendered them both so ready to snatch at his
proposal, without any mention of those considerations they would
otherwise naturally have had of jointure, settlements, and all those
things, previous to marriage, between persons of condition.

He was the more confirmed in this belief, when the father came to his
lodgings the next morning; and without seeming to know any thing of
what had passed between him, either with his wife, or Maria, asked, in
a gay manner, how the latter had received his addresses? To which
Natura answered in the same manner as he had done to her mother;
adding only, that he could not avoid believing her heart was already
engaged to some more worthy man, and was sorry his own unhappy passion
had occasioned any interruption. The father left nothing unsaid that
might dissipate such a conjecture, and affected to railly him on a
jealousy which, he said, was common to lovers; and then told him a
long story how himself had formerly suffered much by the same vain
imagination. But all this was so far from making Natura doubt the
truth of his conjectures, that, seeing through the artifice, he was
the more convinced they were intirely right.

He went, notwithstanding, in the afternoon, either because he had
promised to do so, or because he could not all at once resolve to
banish himself from a person he took so much pleasure in beholding,
though now without hopes of ever being able to obtain:--being left
alone with Maria, both of them remained in a kind of sullen silence
for some minutes, till at last the force of his passion in spite of
himself made him utter some complaints on the cruelty of fortune, and
his own insensibility, which had denied him the opportunity of
discovering the thousand charms he now found in her, till too late to
have his adoration of them acceptable to her. 'I have not less
reason,' said she, 'to accuse the chance which at this time brought us
together, than you can possibly have; since the love you profess for
me, and which I once more assure you I can never return, has laid me
under the severest displeasure of my parents';--'but I had hopes,'
continued she, 'after the declaration I made you yesterday, that you
would have renounced all pretensions to me, and had generosity enough
in your nature, not to have taken the advantage of my father and
mother's power over me, to force me into a compliance, which must be
fatal to one or both