influence--'

'Forgive me, Mr. Waverley,' said Flora, her complexion a little
heightened, but her voice firm and composed. 'I should incur my own heavy
censure did I delay expressing my sincere conviction that I can never
regard you otherwise than as a valued friend. I should do you the highest
injustice did I conceal my sentiments for a moment. I see I distress you,
and I grieve for it, but better now than later; and O, better a thousand
times, Mr. Waverley, that you should feel a present momentary
disappointment than the long and heart-sickening griefs which attend a
rash and ill-assorted marriage!'

'Good God!' exclaimed Waverley, 'why should you anticipate such
consequences from a union where birth is equal, where fortune is
favourable, where, if I may venture to say so, the tastes are similar,
where you allege no preference for another, where you even express a
favourable opinion of him whom you reject?'

'Mr. Waverley, I HAVE that favourable opinion,' answered Flora; 'and so
strongly that, though I would rather have been silent on the grounds of
my resolution, you shall command them, if you exact such a mark of my
esteem and confidence.'

She sat down upon a fragment of rock, and Waverley, placing himself near
her, anxiously pressed for the explanation she offered.

'I dare hardly,' she said, 'tell you the situation of my feelings, they
are so different from those usually ascribed to young women at my period
of life; and I dare hardly touch upon what I conjecture to be the nature
of yours, lest I should give offence where I would willingly administer
consolation. For myself, from my infancy till this day I have had but one
wish--the restoration of my royal benefactors to their rightful throne.
It is impossible to express to you the devotion of my feelings to this
single subject; and I will frankly confess that it has so occupied my
mind as to exclude every thought respecting what is called my own
settlement in life. Let me but live to see the day of that happy
restoration, and a Highland cottage, a French convent, or an English
palace will be alike indifferent to me.'

'But, dearest Flora, how is your enthusiastic zeal for the exiled family
inconsistent with my happiness?'

'Because you seek, or ought to seek, in the object of your attachment a
heart whose principal delight should be in augmenting your domestic
felicity and returning your affection, even to the height of romance. To
a man of less keen sens