"'Oh, my lord,' exclaimed I, 'rise, I beseech you; rise. Surely your
lordship is not so cruel as to mock me.'

"'Mock you!' repeated he earnestly, 'no, I revere you. I esteem and
admire you above all human beings! You are the friend to whom my soul
is attached, as to its better half. You are the most amiable, the most
perfect of women; and you are dearer to me than language has the power
of telling.'

"I attempt not to describe my sensations at that moment; I scarce
breathed; I doubted if I existed; the blood forsook my cheeks, and my
feet refused to sustain me. Lord Orville hastily rising supported me to
a chair upon which I sank almost lifeless.

"I cannot write the scene that followed, though every word is engraven
on my heart; but his protestations, his expressions, were too flattering
for repetition; nor would he, in spite of my repeated efforts to leave
him, suffer me to escape; in short, my dear sir, I was not proof against
his solicitations, and he drew from me the most sacred secret of my
heart!"*

* Contrast this old perfumed, powdered D'Arblay conversation
with the present modern talk. If the two young people
wished to hide their emotions now-a-days, and express
themselves in modest language, the story would run:--

"Whilst I was looking for the books, Lord Orville came in.
He looked uncommonly down in the mouth, as he said: 'Is this
true, Miss Anville; are you going to cut?'

"'To absquatulate, Lord Orville,' said I, still pretending
that I was looking for the books.

"'You are very quick about it,' said he.

"'Guess it's no great loss,' I remarked, as cheerfully as I
could.

"'You don't think I'm chaffing?' said Orville, with much
emotion.

"'What has Mrs. Selwyn done with the books?' I went on.

"'What, going' said he, 'and going for good? I wish I was
such a good-plucked one as you, Miss Anville,'" &c.

The conversation, you perceive, might be easily written down
to this key; and if the hero and heroine were modern, they
would not be suffered to go through their dialogue on
stilts, but would converse in the natural graceful way at
present customary. By the way, what a strange custom that
is in modern lady novelists to make the men bully the women!
In the time of Miss Porter and Madame D'Arblay, we have
respect, profound bows and curtsies, graceful courtesy, fro