ere not worth
looking at, he drew a chair to my side, and receiving the drawings, one
by one from my hand, successively scanned them over, and threw them on
the table, but said not a word about them, though he was talking all the
time. I don't know what Milicent Hargrave thought of such conduct, but I
found his conversation extremely interesting; though, as I afterwards
discovered, when I came to analyse it, it was chiefly confined to
quizzing the different members of the company present; and albeit he made
some clever remarks, and some excessively droll ones, I do not think the
whole would appear anything very particular, if written here, without the
adventitious aids of look, and tone, and gesture, and that ineffable but
indefinite charm, which cast a halo over all he did and said, and which
would have made it a delight to look in his face, and hear the music of
his voice, if he had been talking positive nonsense--and which, moreover,
made me feel so bitter against my aunt when she put a stop to this
enjoyment, by coming composedly forward, under pretence of wishing to see
the drawings, that she cared and knew nothing about, and while making
believe to examine them, addressing herself to Mr. Huntingdon, with one
of her coldest and most repellent aspects, and beginning a series of the
most common-place and formidably formal questions and observations, on
purpose to wrest his attention from me--on purpose to vex me, as I
thought: and having now looked through the portfolio, I left them to
their _tete-a-tete_, and seated myself on a sofa, quite apart from the
company--never thinking how strange such conduct would appear, but merely
to indulge, at first, the vexation of the moment, and subsequently to
enjoy my private thoughts.

But I was not left long alone, for Mr. Wilmot, of all men the least
welcome, took advantage of my isolated position to come and plant himself
beside me. I had flattered myself that I had so effectually repulsed his
advances on all former occasions, that I had nothing more to apprehend
from his unfortunate predilection; but it seems I was mistaken: so great
was his confidence, either in his wealth or his remaining powers of
attraction, and so firm his conviction of feminine weakness, that he
thought himself warranted to return to the siege, which he did with
renovated ardour, enkindled by the quantity of wine he had drunk--a
circumstance that rendered him infinitely the more disgusting; but
great