arge, then could I say, I would consider
of your kind advice. But I would rather be thought perverse than
insincere. Is there, however, no medium? Can nothing be thought of? Will
nothing do, but to have a man who is the more disgustful to me, because
he is unjust in the very articles he offers?

Whom now, Clary, said my sister, do you reflect upon? Consider that.

Make not invidious applications of what I say, Bella. It may not be
looked upon in the same light by every one. The giver and the accepter
are principally answerable in an unjust donation. While I think of it in
this light, I should be inexcusable to be the latter. But why do I enter
upon a supposition of this nature?--My heart, as I have often, often
said, recoils, at the thought of the man, in every light.--Whose father,
but mine, agrees upon articles where there is no prospect of a liking?
Where the direct contrary is avowed, all along avowed, without the
least variation, or shadow of a change of sentiment?--But it is not my
father's doing originally. O my cruel, cruel brother, to cause a measure
to be forced upon me, which he would not behave tolerably under, were
the like to be offered to him!

The girl is got into her altitudes, Aunt Hervey, said my sister. You
see, Madam, she spares nobody. Be pleased to let her know what she has
to trust to. Nothing is to be done with her. Pray, Madam, pronounce her
doom.

My aunt retired to the window, weeping, with my sister in her hand:
I cannot, indeed I cannot, Miss Harlowe, said she, softly, (but yet I
heard every word she said): there is great hardship in her case. She
is a noble child after all. What pity things are gone so far!--But Mr.
Solmes ought to be told to desist.

O Madam, said my sister, in a kind of loud whisper, are you caught too
by the little siren?--My mother did well not to come up!--I question
whether my father himself, after his first indignation, would not be
turned round by her. Nobody but my brother can do any thing with her, I
am sure.

Don't think of your brother's coming up, said my aunt, still in a low
voice--He is too furious. I see no obstinacy, no perverseness, in
her manner! If your brother comes, I will not be answerable for the
consequences: for I thought twice or thrice she would have gone into
fits.

O Madam, she has a strong heart!--And you see there is no prevailing
with her, though you were upon your knees to her.

My sister left my aunt musing at the window, with h