brother pretended once, that it was owing to such value,
that Mr. Lovelace's address was prohibited.--Can this be; and such a man
as Mr. Solmes be intended for me?

As to his proposed settlements, I hope I shall not incur your great
displeasure, if I say, what all who know me have reason to think (and
some have upbraided me for), that I despise those motives. Dear, dear
Sir, what are settlements to one who has as much of her own as she
wishes for?--Who has more in her own power, as a single person, than
it is probable she would be permitted to have at her disposal, as a
wife?--Whose expenses and ambition are moderate; and who, if she had
superfluities, would rather dispense them to the necessitous, than lay
them by her useless? If then such narrow motives have so little weight
with me for my own benefit, shall the remote and uncertain view of
family-aggrandizements, and that in the person of my brother and his
descendents, be thought sufficient to influence me?

Has the behaviour of that brother to me of late, or his consideration
for the family (which had so little weight with him, that he could
choose to hazard a life so justly precious as an only son's, rather than
not ratify passions which he is above attempting to subdue, and, give me
leave to say, has been too much indulged in, either with regard to his
own good, or the peace of any body related to him;) Has his behaviour, I
say, deserved of me in particular, that I should make a sacrifice of my
temporal (and, who knows? of my eternal) happiness, to promote a plan
formed upon chimerical, at least upon unlikely, contingencies; as I will
undertake to demonstrate, if I may be permitted to examine it?

I am afraid you will condemn my warmth: But does not the occasion
require it? To the want of a greater degree of earnestness in my
opposition, it seems, it is owing, that such advances have been made,
as have been made. Then, dear Sir, allow something, I beseech you, for a
spirit raised and embittered by disgraces, which (knowing my own heart)
I am confident to say, are unmerited.

But why have I said so much, in answer to the supposed charge of
prepossession, when I have declared to my mamma, as now, Sir, I do
to you, that if it be not insisted upon that I shall marry any other
person, particularly this Mr. Solmes, I will enter into any engagements
never to have the other, nor any man else, without their consents; that
is to say, without the consents of my father an