ct of
levity and dissipation can I be convicted? Have I not lived in
the solitude of a recluse? Oh, fortune, hard and unexampled!

"Deuce take me, cried sir Charles, whispering Townshend, if I
ever saw any thing so handsome.

"Olivia stood in a posture firm and collected, her bosom heaving
with resentment; but her face was covered with blushes, and her
eyes were languishing and sorrowful.

"For the present unfortunate affair I will acknowledge the
truth. Mr. Burchel to me appeared endowed with every esteemable
accomplishment, brave, generous, learned, imaginative, and
tender. By what nobler qualities could a female heart be won?
Fashion, I am told, requires that we should not make the
advances. I reck not fashion, and have never been her slave.
Fortune has thrown him at a distance from me. It should have
been my boast to trample upon her imaginary distinctions. I
would never have forced an unwilling hand. But if constancy,
simplicity and regard could have won a heart, his heart had been
mine. I know that the succession of external objects would have
made the artless virtues of Olivia pass unheeded. It was for
that I formed my little plan. I will not blush for a scheme that
no bad passion prompted. But it is over, and I will return to my
beloved solitude with what unconcern I may. God bless you, Mr.
Burchel; I never meant you any harm: and in saying this, she
advanced two steps forward, and laid her hand on his.

"Burchel, without knowing what he did, fell on one knee and
kissed it.

"This action revived the confusion of Olivia; she retreated, and
Louisa took hold of her arm. Will you retire, said Louisa? You
are a sweet good creature. Olivia assented, advanced a few steps
forward, and then with her head half averted, took a parting
glance at Burchel, and hurried away.

"A strange girl this, said Bromley! Devil take me, if I know
what to make of her.

"I vow, cried sir Charles, I am acquainted with all the coteries
in town, and never met with any thing like her.

"Why, she is as coming, rejoined the squire, as a milk-maid, and
yet I do not know how she has something that dashes one too.

"Ah, cried sir Charles, shaking his head, she has nothing of the
manners of the _grand monde_.

"That I can say nothing to, said Bromley, but, in my mind, her
be