as, on all proper
occasions, exerted itself in its full lustre, unmingled
>>> with that charming obligingness and condescending
sweetness, which is evermore the softener of that
dignity, when your mind is free and unapprehen-
sive!

>>> Let me stop to admire, and to bless my beloved
friend, who, unhappily for herself, at an age so
tender, unacquainted as she was with the world, and
with the vile arts of libertines, having been called
upon to sustain the hardest and most shocking trials,
from persecuting relations on one hand, and from
a villanous lover on the other, has been enabled to
give such an illustrious example of fortitude and
prudence as never woman gave before her; and
who, as I have heretofore observed,* has made a
far greater figure in adversity, than she possibly
could have made, had all her shining qualities been
exerted in their full force and power, by the con-
>>> tinuance of that prosperous run of fortune which
attended her for eighteen years of life out of
nineteen.

* See Vol. IV. Letters XXIV.

***

>>> But now, my dear, do I apprehend, that you
are in greater danger than ever yet you have been
in; if you are not married in a week; and yet stay
in this abominable house. For were you out of it,
I own I should not be much afraid for you.

These are my thoughts, on the most deliberate
>>> consideration: 'That he is now convinced, that
he has not been able to draw you off your guard:
that therefore, if he can obtain no new advantage
over you as he goes along, he is resolved to do you
all the poor justice that it is in the power of such a
wretch as he to do you. He is the rather induced to
this, as he sees that all his own family have warmly
engaged themselves in your cause: and that it is
>>> his highest interest to be just to you. Then the
horrid wretch loves you (as well he may) above all
women. I have no doubt of this: with such a love
>>> as such a wretch is capable of: with such a love as
Herod loved his Marianne. He is now therefore,
very probably, at last, in earnest.'

I took time for inquiries of different natures, as
I knew, by the train you are in, that whatever his
designs are, they cannot ripen either for good or
>>> evil till something shall result from