But my great difficulty had been before with Mr. Orme.
His sister had desired that I would see her brother. He and she were
invited by my aunt to dinner on Tuesday. They came. Poor man! He is
not well! I am sorry for it. Poor Mr. Orme is not well! He made me
such honest compliments, as I may say: his heart was too much in his
civilities to raise them above the civilities that justice and truth
might warrant in favour of a person highly esteemed. Mine was filled
with compassion for him; and that compassion would have shewn itself in
tokens of tenderness, more than once, had I not restrained myself for his
sake. How you, my dear Lady G----, can delight in giving pain to an
honest heart, I cannot imagine. I would make all God Almighty's
creatures happy, if I could; and so would your noble brother. Is he not
crossing dangerous seas, and ascending, through almost perpetual snows,
those dreadful Alps which I have heard described with such terror, for
the generous end of relieving distress?
I made Mr. Orme sit next me. I was assiduous to help him, and to do him
all the little offices which I thought would light up pleasure in his
modest countenance; and he was quite another man. It gave delight to his
sister, and to all my friends, to see him smile, and look happy.
I think, my dear Lady G----, that when Mr. Orme looks pleasant, and at
ease, he resembles a little the good-natured Lord G----. O that you
would take half the pains to oblige him, that I do to relieve Mr. Orme!--
Half the pains, did I say? That you would not take pains to dis-oblige
him; and he would be, of course, obliged. Don't be afraid, my dear,
that, in such a world as this, things will not happen to make you uneasy
without your studying for them.
Excuse my seriousness: I am indeed too serious, at times.
But when Mr. Orme requested a few minutes' audience of me, as he called
it, and I walked with him into the cedar parlour, which you have heard me
mention, and with which I hope you will be one day acquainted; he paid,
poor man! for his too transient pleasure. Why would he urge a denial
that he could not but know I must give?
His sister and I had afterwards a conference. She pleaded too strongly
her brother's health, and even his life; both which, she would have it,
depended on my favour to him. I was greatly affected; and at last
besought her, if she valued my friendship as I did hers, never more to
mention to me a subject which gave me a pain too sensible for my peace.
She requested me to assure her, that neither Mr. Greville, nor Mr.
Fenwick, might be the man. They both took upon them, she said, to
ridicule her brother for the profound respect, even to reverence, that he
bore me; which, if he knew, might be attended with consequences: for that
her brother, mild and gentle as was his passion for me, had courage to
resent any indignities that might be cast upon him by spirits boisterous
as were those of the two gentlemen she had named. She never, therefore,
told her brother of their scoffs. But it would go to her heart, if
either of them should succeed, or have reason but for a distant hope.