but that it should come from the man whom, of all others, I
instinctively most loathed and abhorred, and to whom I had, as clearly
as manner could do it, expressed the state of my feelings, was almost
too annoying to be borne; it was a calamity, too, in which I could not
claim the sympathy of my cousin Emily, which had always been extended
to me in my minor grievances. Still I hoped that it might not be
unattended with good; for I thought that one inevitable and most
welcome consequence would result from this painful _eclaircissement_,
in the discontinuance of my cousin's odious persecution.

When I arose next morning, it was with the fervent hope that I
might never again behold his face, or even hear his name; but such
a consummation, though devoutedly to be wished, was hardly likely to
occur. The painful impressions of yesterday were too vivid to be
at once erased; and I could not help feeling some dim foreboding of
coming annoyance and evil. To expect on my cousin's part anything like
delicacy or consideration for me, was out of the question. I saw that
he had set his heart upon my property, and that he was not likely
easily to forego such a prize, possessing what might have been
considered opportunities and facilities almost to compel my
compliance. I now keenly felt the unreasonableness of my father's
conduct in placing me to reside with a family, with all the members of
which, with one exception, he was wholly unacquainted, and I bitterly
felt the helplessness of my situation. I determined, however, in the
event of my cousin's persevering in his addresses, to lay all the
particulars before my uncle, although he had never, in kindness or
intimacy, gone a step beyond our first interview, and to throw myself
upon his hospitality and his sense of honour for protection against a
repetition of such annoyances.

My cousin's conduct may appear to have been an inadequate cause for
such serious uneasiness; but my alarm was awakened neither by his acts
nor by words, but entirely by his manner, which was strange and even
intimidating. At the beginning of our yesterday's interview, there was
a sort of bullying swagger in his air, which, towards the end,
gave place to something bordering upon the brutal vehemence of an
undisguised ruffian, a transition which had tempted me into a belief
that he might seek, even forcibly, to extort from me a consent to his
wishes, or by means still more horrible, of which I scarcely dared to