It cannot be very improper, Mr. Hickman--So let me ask you, What would
Miss Howe think, if her friend is the more determined against me, because
she thinks (to revenge to me, I verily believe that!) of encouraging
another lover?
How, Sir!--Sure this cannot be the case!--I can tell you, Sir, if Miss
Howe thought this, she would not approve of it at all: for, little as you
think Miss Howe likes you, Sir, and little as she approves of your
actions by her friend, I know she is of opinion that she ought to have
nobody living but you: and should continue single all her life, if she be
not your's.
Revenge and obstinacy, Mr. Hickman, will make women, the best of them, do
very unaccountable things. Rather than not put out both eyes of a man
they are offended with, they will give up one of their own.
I don't know what to say to this, Sir: but sure she cannot encourage any
other person's address!--So soon too--Why, Sir, she is, as we are told,
so ill, and so weak----
Not in resentment weak, I'll assure you. I am well acquainted with all
her movements--and I tell you, believe it, or not, that she refuses me in
view of another lover.
Can it be?
'Tis true, by my soul!--Has she not hinted this to Miss Howe, do you
think?
No, indeed, Sir. If she had I should not have troubled you at this time
from Miss Howe.
Well then, you see I am right: that though she cannot be guilty of a
falsehood, yet she has not told her friend the whole truth.