!_ 'Tis to profane the word to use it in speaking of him.

One o'clock.

I am mistaken, Lucy; astonishing as it is, she loves him; this dull
clod of uninformed earth has touched the lively soul of my Emily. Love
is indeed the child of caprice; I will not say of sympathy, for what
sympathy can there be between two hearts so different? I am hurt, she
is lowered in my esteem; I expected to find in the man she loved, a
mind sensible and tender as her own.

I repeat it, my dear Lucy, she loves him; I observed her when we
entered the room; she blushed, she turned pale, she trembled, her
voice faltered; every look spoke the strong emotion of her soul.

She is paler than when I saw her last; she is, I think, less
beautiful, but more touching than ever; there is a languor in her air,
a softness in her countenance, which are the genuine marks of a heart
in love; all the tenderness of her soul is in her eyes.

Shall I own to you all my injustice? I hate this man for having the
happiness to please her: I cannot even behave to him with the
politeness due to every gentleman.

I begin to fear my weakness is greater than I supposed.

22d in the evening.

I am certainly mad, Lucy; what right have I to expect!--you will
scarce believe the excess of my folly. I went after dinner to Major
Melmoth's; I found Emily at piquet with Sir George: can you conceive
that I fancied myself ill used, that I scarce spoke to her, and
returned immediately home, though strongly pressed to spend the evening
there. I walked two or three times about my room, took my hat, and went
to visit the handsomest Frenchwoman at Montreal, whose windows are
directly opposite to Major Melmoth's; in the excess of my anger, I
asked this lady to dance with me to-morrow at a little ball we are to
have out of town. Can you imagine any behaviour more childish? It would
have been scarce pardonable at sixteen.

Adieu! my letter is called for. I will write to you again in a few
days.

Yours,
Ed. Rivers.

Major Melmoth tells me, they are to be married in a month at
Quebec, and to embark immediately for England. I will not be there; I
cannot bear to see her devote herself to wretchedness: she will be the
most unhappy of her sex with this man; I see clearly into his
character; his virtue is the meer absence of vice; his good qualities
are all of the negative kind.

LETTER 19.

To Miss Fermor, at Silleri.

Montreal, Sept. 24.

I have but a m