ish every
body to pay him.--And as Mr. Solmes's inferiority in this respectable
faculty of the human mind [I must be allowed to say this to you, and no
great self assumption neither] would proclaim to all future, as well as
to all present observers, what must have been my mean inducement. All
these reflections crowding upon my remembrance; I would, Madam, said
I, folding my hands, with an earnestness in which my whole heart was
engaged, bear the cruelest tortures, bear loss of limb, and even of
life, to give you peace. But this man, every moment I would, at you
command, think of him with favour, is the more my aversion. You cannot,
indeed you cannot, think, how my whole soul resists him!--And to talk
of contracts concluded upon; of patterns; of a short day!--Save me,
save me, O my dearest Mamma, save your child, from this heavy, from this
insupportable evil--!

Never was there a countenance that expressed so significantly, as my
mother's did, an anguish, which she struggled to hide, under an anger
she was compelled to assume--till the latter overcoming the former, she
turned from me with an uplifted eye, and stamping--Strange perverseness!
were the only words I heard of a sentence that she angrily pronounced;
and was going. I then, half-frantically I believe, laid hold of her
gown--Have patience with me, dearest Madam! said I--Do not you renounce
me totally!--If you must separate yourself from your child, let it
not be with absolute reprobation on your own part!--My uncles may be
hard-hearted--my father may be immovable--I may suffer from my brother's
ambition, and from my sister's envy!--But let me not lose my Mamma's
love; at least, her pity.

She turned to me with benigner rays--You have my love! You have my pity!
But, O my dearest girl--I have not yours.

Indeed, indeed, Madam, you have: and all my reverence, all my gratitude,
you have!--But in this one point--Cannot I be this once obliged?--Will
no expedient be accepted? Have I not made a very fair proposal as to Mr.
Lovelace?

I wish, for both our sakes, my dear unpersuadable girl, that the
decision of this point lay with me. But why, when you know it does not,
why should you thus perplex and urge me?--To renounce Mr. Lovelace is
now but half what is aimed at. Nor will any body else believe you in
earnest in the offer, if I would. While you remain single, Mr. Lovelace
will have hopes--and you, in the opinion of others, inclinations.

Permit me, dearest Madam