ong lack-a-daysaical life, as other
honest married folks do.

CHARLOTTE

Why did they not then marry?

LETITIA

Upon the death of his father, Billy went to England to see the world
and rub off a little of the patroon rust. During his absence, Maria,
like a good girl, to keep herself constant to her nown true-love,
avoided company, and betook herself, for her amusement, to her books,
and her dear Billy's letters. But, alas! how many ways has the
mischievous demon of inconstancy of stealing into a woman's heart! Her
love was destroyed by the very means she took to support it.

CHARLOTTE

How?--Oh! I have it--some likely young beau found the way to her study.

LETITIA

Be patient, Charlotte; your head so runs upon beaux. Why, she read Sir
Charles Grandison, Clarissa Harlow, Shenstone, and the Sentimental
Journey; and between whiles, as I said, Billy's letters. But, as her
taste improved, her love declined. The contrast was so striking
betwixt the good sense of her books and the flimsiness of her
love-letters, that she discovered she had unthinkingly engaged her hand
without her heart; and then the whole transaction, managed by the old
folks, now appeared so unsentimental, and looked so like bargaining for
a bale of goods, that she found she ought to have rejected, according
to every rule of romance, even the man of her choice, if imposed upon
her in that manner. Clary Harlow would have scorned such a match.

CHARLOTTE

Well, how was it on Mr. Dimple's return? Did he meet a more favourable
reception than his letters?

LETITIA

Much the same. She spoke of him with respect abroad, and with contempt
in her closet. She watched his conduct and conversation, and found
that he had by travelling, acquired the wickedness of Lovelace without
his wit, and the politeness of Sir Charles Grandison without his
generosity. The ruddy youth, who washed his face at the cistern every
morning, and swore and looked eternal love and constancy, was now
metamorphosed into a flippant, palid, polite beau, who devotes the
morning to his toilet, reads a few pages of Chesterfield's letters, and
then minces out, to put the infamous principles in practice upon every
woman he meets.

CHARLOTTE

But, if she is so apt at conjuring up these sentimental bugbears, why
does she not discard him at once?

LETITIA

Why, she thinks her word too sacred to be trifled with. Besides, her
father, who has a great respect