_Traits of Character_
The following morning, Mrs. Mittin came with eager intelligence, that
the raffle was fixed for one o'clock; and, without any scruple,
accompanied the party to the shop, addressing herself to every one of
the set as to a confirmed and intimate friend. But her chief supporter
was Mr. Dennel, whose praise of her was the vehicle to his censure of
his sister-in-law. That lady was the person in the world whom he most
feared and disliked. He had neither spirit for the splendid manner in
which she lived, nor parts for the vivacity of her conversation. The
first, his love of money made him condemn as extravagant, and the latter
his self-love made him hate, because he could not understand. He
persuaded himself, therefore, that she had more words than meaning; and
extolled all the obvious truths uttered by Mrs. Mittin, to shew his
superior admiration of what, being plain and incontrovertible, he
dignified with the panegyric of being sensible.
When they came upon the Pantiles, they were accosted by Mr. Dubster; who
having solemnly asked them, one by one, how they all did, joined Mrs.
Mittin, saying: 'Well, I can't pretend as I'm over sorry you've got
neither of those two comical gentlemen with you, that behaved so free to
me for nothing. I don't think it's particular agreeable being treated
so; though it's a thing I don't much mind. It's not worth fretting
about.'
'Well, don't say any more about it,' cried Mrs. Mittin, endeavouring to
shake him off; 'I dare say you did something to provoke 'em, or they're
too genteel to have taken notice of you.'
'Me provoke them! why what did I do? I was just like a mere lamb, as one
may say, at the very time that young Captain fell abusing me so, calling
of me a little dirty fellow, without no provocation. If I'm little, or
big, I don't see that it's any business of his. And as to dirty, I'd put
on all clean linen but the very day before, as the people can tell you
at the inn; so the whole was a mere piece of falsehood from one end to
t'other.'
'Well, well, what do you talk about it for any more? You should never
take anything ill of a young gentleman. It's only aggravating him so
much the worse.'
'Aggravating him, Mrs. Mittin! why what need I mind that? Do you think
I'm to put up with his talking of caning me, and such like, because of
his being a young gentleman? Not I, I assure you! I'm no such person.
And if once I feel his switch across these here shoulders, it won't be
so well for him!'
The party now entered the shop where the raffle was to be held.
Edgar was already there; he had no power to keep away from any place
where he was sure to behold Camilla; and a raffle brought to his mind
the most tender recollections. He was now with Lord O'Lerney, in whose
candour and benevolence of character he took great delight, and with
whom he had joined Lady Isabella Irby, who had been drawn, as a quiet
spectatress, to the sight, by a friend, who, having never seen the
humours of a raffle, had entreated, through her means, to look on. He
languished to see Camilla presented to this lady, in whose manners and
conversation, dignity and simplicity were equally blended.
While he was yet, though absently, conversing with them, Lord O'Lerney
pointed out Camilla to Lady Isabella.
'I have taken notice of her already at the Rooms;' answered her
Ladyship; 'and I have seldom, I think, seen a more interesting young
creature.'
'The character of her countenance,' said Lord O'Lerney, 'strikes me very
peculiarly. 'Tis so intelligent, yet so unhackneyed, so full of meaning,
yet so artless, that, while I look at her, I feel myself involuntarily
anxious for her welfare.'
'I don't think she seems happy,' said Lady Isabella; 'Do you know who
she is, my Lord?'
Edgar, here, with difficulty suppressed a sigh. Not happy! thought he;
ah! wherefore? what can make Camilla unhappy?
'I understand she is a niece of Sir Hugh Tyrold,' answered his Lordship;
'a Yorkshire Baronet. She is here with an acquaintance of mine, Mrs.
Arlbery, who is one of the first women I have ever known, for wit and
capacity. She has an excellent heart, too; though her extraordinary
talents, and her carelessness of opinion make it sometimes, but very
unjustly, doubted.'
Edgar heard this with much pleasure. A good word from Lord O'Lerney
quieted many fears; he hoped he had been unnecessarily alarmed; he
determined, in future, to judge her more favourably.
'I should be glad,' continued his Lordship, 'to hear this young lady
were either well established, or returned to her friends without
becoming an object of public notice. A young woman is no where so rarely
respectable, or respected, as at these water-drinking places, if seen at
them either long or often. The search of pleasure and dissipation, at a
spot consecrated for restoring health to the sick, the infirm, and the
suffering, carries with it an air of egotism, that does not give the
most pleasant idea of the feeling and disposition.'
'Yet, may not the sick, my Lord, be rather amended than hurt by the
sight of gaiety around them?'
'Yes, my dear Lady Isabella; and the effect, therefore, I believe to be
beneficial. But as this is not the motive why the young and the gay seek
these spots, it is not here they will find themselves most honoured. And
the mixture of pain and illness with splendor and festivity, is so
unnatural, that probably it is to that we must attribute that a young
woman is no where so hardly judged. If she is without fortune, she is
thought a female adventurer, seeking to sell herself for its attainment;
if she is rich, she is supposed a willing dupe, ready for a snare, and
only looking about for an ensnarer.'
'And yet, young women seldom, I believe, my Lord, merit this severity of
judgment. They come but hither in the summer, as they go to London in
the winter, simply in search of amusement, without any particular
purpose.'
'True; but they do not weigh what their observers weigh for them, that
the search of public recreation in the winter is, from long habit,
permitted without censure; but that the summer has not, as yet,
prescription so positively in its favour; and those who, after meeting
them all the winter at the opera, and all the spring at Ranelagh, hear
of them all the summer at Cheltenham, Tunbridge, &c. and all the autumn
at Bath, are apt to inquire, when is the season for home.'
'Ah, my Lord! how wide are the poor inconsiderate little flutterers from
being aware of such a question! How necessary to youth and
thoughtlessness is the wisdom of experience!'
Why does she not come this way? thought Edgar; why does she not gather
from these mild, yet understanding moralists, instruction that might
benefit all her future life?
'There is nothing,' said Lord O'Lerney, 'I more sincerely pity than the
delusions surrounding young females. The strongest admirers of their
eyes are frequently the most austere satirists of their conduct.'
The entrance of Lord Newford, Sir Theophilus Jarard, and Sir Sedley
Clarendel, all noisily talking and laughing together, interrupted any
further conversation. The two former no sooner saw Camilla, and
perceived neither Lady Alithea Selmore, nor Mrs. Berlinton, than they
made up to her; and Sir Sedley, who now found she was completely
established in the _bon ton_, felt something of pride mix with pleasure
in publicly availing himself of his intimacy with her; and something
like interest mix with curiosity, in examining if Edgar were struck with
her ready attention to him.
Upon Edgar, however, it made not the slightest impression. While Sir
Sedley had appeared to him a mere fop, he had thought it degraded her;
but how he regarded him as her preserver, it seemed both natural and
merited.
Sir Sedley, not aware of this reasoning, was somewhat piqued; and taking
him to another part of the shop, whispered: 'I am horribly vapoured! Do
you know I have some thoughts of trying that little girl? Do you think
one could make anything of her?'
'How? what do you mean?' cried Edgar, with sudden alarm.
Sir Sedley, a little flattered, affectedly answered: 'O, if you have any
serious designs that way, incontestably I won't interfere.'
'Me!' cried Edgar, surprised and offended; 'believe me, no! I have all
my life considered her--as my sister.'
Sir Sedley saw this was spoken with effort; and negligently replied:
'Nay you are just at the first epocha for marrying from inclination; but
you are in the right not to perform so soon the funeral honours of
liberty. 'Tis what you may do at any time. So many girls want
establishments, that a man of sixty can just as easily get a wife of
eighteen, as a man of one-and-twenty. The only inconvenience in that
sort of alliance is, that though she begins with submitting to her
venerated husband as prettily as to her papa, she is terribly apt to
have a knack of running away from him, afterwards, with equal facility.'
'That is rather a discouraging article, I confess,' cried Edgar, 'for
the tardy votaries of Hymen!'
'O, no! 'tis no great matter!' answered he, patting his snuffbox; 'we
are impenetrable in the extreme to those sort of grievances now-a-days.
We are at such prodigious expence of sensibility in public, for tales of
sorrow told about pathetically, at a full board, that if we suffered
much for our private concerns to boot, we must always meet one another
with tears in our eyes. We never weep now, but at dinner, or at some
diversion.'
Lord Newford, pulling him by the arm, called out: 'Come, Clary, what art
about, man? we want thee.'
'Come, Clary! don't shirk, Clary,' cried Sir Theophilus; 'I can't
possibly patronise this shirking.' And they hauled him to a corner of
the shop, where all three resumed their customary laughing whispers.
'You will not, perhaps, suspect, Lady Isabella,' said Lord O'Lerney,
smiling, 'that one of that triumvirate is by no means deficient in
parts, and can even, when he desires it, be extremely pleasing?'
'Your Lordship judges right, I confess! I had not, indeed, done him such
justice!'
'See then,' said his Lordship, 'how futile an animal is man, without
some decided character and principle!
He's every thing by turns, and nothing long[3].
[Footnote 3: Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.]
Wise, foolish; virtuous, vicious; active, indolent; prodigal and
avaricious! No contrast is too strong for him while guided but by
accident or impulse. This gentleman also, in common with the rest of his
_tonnish_ brethren, is now daily, though unconsciously, hoarding up a
world of unprepared-for mortification, by not foreseeing that the more
he is celebrated in his youth, for being the leader of the _ton_, and
the man of the day, the earlier he will be regarded as a creature out of
date, an old beau, and a fine gentleman of former times. But 'tis by
reverses, such as these, that folly and impropriety pay their penalties.
We might spare all our anger against the vanity of the beauty, or the
conceit of the coxcomb. Are not wrinkles always in waiting to punish the
one, and age, without honour, to chastise and degrade the other?'
All the rafflers were now arrived, except Mrs. Berlinton, who was
impatiently expected. Lady Alithea Selmore had already sent a proxy to
throw for her in her own woman; much to the dissatisfaction of most part
of the company. A general rising and inquietude to look out for Mrs.
Berlinton, gave Edgar, at length, an opportunity to stand next to
Camilla. 'How I grieve,' he cried 'you should not know Lady Isabella
Irby! she seems to me a model for a woman of rank in her manners, and a
model for a woman of every station in her mind. The world, I believe,
could scarce have tempted her to so offensive a mark of superiority as
has just been exhibited by Lady Alithea Selmore, who has ingeniously
discovered a method of being signalised as the most important person out
of twenty, by making herself nineteen enemies.'
'I wonder,' said Camilla, 'she can think the chance of the ear-rings
worth so high a price!'
A footman, in a splendid livery, now entering, inquired for Miss Tyrold.
She was pointed out to him by Major Cerwood, and he delivered her a
letter from Mrs. Berlinton.
The contents were to entreat she would throw for that lady, who was in
the midst of Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, and could not tear
herself away from them.
Camilla blushed excessively in proclaiming she was chosen Mrs.
Berlinton's proxy. Edgar saw with tenderness her modest confusion, and,
with a pleasure the most touching, read the favourable impression it
made upon Lord O'Lerney and Lady Isabella.
This seemed an opportunity irresistible for venting his fears and
cautions about Mrs. Berlinton; and, taking the bustling period in which
the rafflers were arranging the order and manner of throwing, he said,
in a low, and diffident tone of voice, 'You have committed to me an
important and, I fear, an importunate office; yet, while I hold, I
cannot persuade myself not to fulfil it; though I know that to give
advice which opposes sentiment and feeling, is repugnant to independence
and to delicacy. Such, therefore, I do not mean to enforce; but merely
to offer hints--intimations--and observations--that without controlling,
may put you upon your guard.'
Camilla, affected by this unexpected address, could only look her desire
for an explanation.
'The lady,' he continued, 'whom you are presently to represent, appears
to be uncommonly engaging?--'
'Indeed she is! She is attractive, gentle, amiable.'
'She seems, also, already to have caught your affection?'
'Who could have withheld it, that had seen her as I have seen her? She
is as unhappy as she is lovely....'
'I have heard of your first meeting, with as much pleasure in the
presence of mind it called forth on one side, as with doubt and
perplexity, upon every circumstance I can gather, of the other.--'
'If you knew her, you would find it impossible to hold any doubts;
impossible to resist admiring, compassionating, and loving her!'
'If my knowledge of her bribed an interest in her favour, without
convincing me she deserved it, I ought, rather, to regret that you have
not escaped falling into such a snare, than that I could have escaped it
myself.'
'I believe her free, nay incapable of all ill!' cried Camilla warmly;
'though I dare not assert she is always coolly upon her guard.'
'Do not let me hurt you,' said Edgar, gently; 'I have seen how lovely
she is in person, and how pleasing in manners. And she is so young that,
were she in a situation less exposed, want of steadiness or judgment
might, by a little time, be set right. But here, there is surely much to
fear from her early possession of power.... O, that some happier chance
had brought about such a peculiar intercourse for you with Lady Isabella
Irby! There, to the pleasure of friendship, might be added the modesty
of retired elegance, and the security of established respectability.'
'And may not this yet happen, with Mrs. Berlinton? Lady Isabella, though
still young, is not in the extreme youth of Mrs. Berlinton: a few more
years, therefore, may bring equal discretion; and as she has already
every other good quality, you may hereafter equally approve her.'
'Do you think, then,' said Edgar, half smiling, 'that the few years of
difference in their age were spent by Lady Isabella in the manner they
are now spent by Mrs. Berlinton? do you think she paved the way for her
present dignified, though unassuming character, by permitting herself to
be surrounded by professed admirers? by letting their sighs reach her
ears? by suffering their eyes to fasten with open rapture on her face?
and by holding it sufficient not to suppress such liberties, so long as
she does not avowedly encourage them?'
Camilla was startled. She had not seen her conduct in this light: yet
her understanding refused to deny it might bear this interpretation.
Charmed with the candour of her silence, Edgar continued, 'How wide from
all that is open to similar comment, is the carriage and behaviour of
Lady Isabella! how clear! how transparent, how free from all conjecture
of blemish! They may each, indeed, essentially be equally innocent; and
your opinion of Mrs. Berlinton corroborates the impression made by her
beautiful countenance: yet how far more highly is the true feminine
character preserved, where surmise is not raised, than where it can be
parried! Think but of those two ladies, and mark the difference. Lady
Isabella, addressed only where known, followed only because loved, sees
no adulators encircling her, for adulation would alarm her; no admirers
paying her homage, for such homage would offend her. She knows she has
not only her own innocence to guard, but the honour of her husband.
Whether she is happy with him or not, this deposit is equally sacred.--'
He stopt; for Camilla again started. The irrepressible frankness of her
nature revolted against denying how much this last sentence struck her,
and she ingenuously exclaimed: 'O that this most amiable young creature
were but more aware of this duty!'
'Ah, my dear Miss Camilla,' cried Edgar, with energy, 'since you feel
and own ... and with you, that is always one ... this baneful
deficiency, drop, or at least suspend an intercourse too hazardous to be
indulged with propriety! See what she may be sometime hence, ere you
contract further intimacy. At present, unexperienced and unsuspicious,
her dangers may be yours. You are too young for such a risk. Fly, fly
from it, my dear Miss Camilla!... as if the voice of your mother were
calling out to caution you!'
Camilla was deeply touched. An interest so warm in her welfare was
soothing, and the name of her mother rendered it awful; yet, thus
united, it appeared to her more strongly than ever to announce itself as
merely fraternal. She could not suppress a sigh; but he attributed it to
the request he had urged, and, with much concern, added: 'What I have
asked of you, then, is too severe?'
Again irresistibly sighing, yet collecting all her force to conceal the
secret cause, she answered, 'If she is thus exposed to danger ... if her
situation is so perilous, ought I not rather to stay by, and help to
support her, than by abandoning, perhaps contribute to the evil you
think awaiting her?'
'Generous Camilla!' cried he, melted into tender admiration, 'who can
oppose so kind a design? So noble a nature!...'
No more could be said, for all preliminaries had been settled, and the
throwing being arranged to take place alphabetically, she was soon
summoned to represent Mrs. Berlinton.
From this time, Edgar could speak to her no more: even the Major could
scarcely make way to her: the two men of the _ton_ would not quit her,
and Sir Sedley Clarendel appeared openly devoted to her.
Edgar looked on with the keenest emotion. The proof he had just received
that her intrinsic worth was in its first state of excellence, had come
home to his heart, and the fear of seeing her altered and spoilt, by the
flatteries and dangers which environed her, with his wavering belief in
her engagement with Major Cerwood, made him more wretched than ever. But
when, some time after, she was called upon to throw for herself, the
recollection that, from the former raffle, her half-guinea, even when
the prize was in her hand, had been voluntarily withdrawn to be bestowed
upon a poor family, so powerfully affected him, that he could not rest
in the shop; he was obliged to breathe a freer air, and to hide his
disturbance by a retreat.
Her throw was the highest the dice had yet afforded. A Miss Williams
alone came after her, whose throw was the lowest; Miss Camilla Tyrold,
therefore, was proclaimed to be the winner.
This second testimony of the favour of fortune was a most pleasant
surprise to Camilla, and made the room resound with felicitations, till
they were interrupted by a violent quarrel upon the Pantiles, whence the
voice of Macdersey was heard, hollooing out: 'Don't talk, I say sir!
don't presume to say a word!' and that of Mr. Dubster angrily answering,
he would talk as long as he thought proper, whether it was agreeable or
not.
Sir Sedley advanced to the combatants, in order to help on the dispute;
but Edgar, returning at the sound of high words, took the Ensign by the
arm, and prevailed with him to accompany him up and down the Pantiles;
while Mrs. Mittin ran to Mr. Dubster, and pulling him into the shop,
said: 'Mr. Dubster, if I'm not ashamed of you! how can you forget
yourself so? talking to gentlemen at such a rate!'
'Why what should hinder me?' cried he; 'do you think I shall put up with
every thing as I used to do when you first knew me, and we used to meet
at Mr. Typton's, the tallow chandler's, in Shug-lane? no, Mrs. Mittin,
nor no such a thing; I'm turned gentleman myself, now, as much as the
best of 'em; for I've nothing to do, but just what I choose.'
'I protest, Mr. Dubster,' cried Mrs. Mittin, taking him into a corner
'you're enough to put a saint into a pet! how come you to think of
talking of Mr. Typton here? before such gentlefolks? and where's the use
of telling every body he's a tallow chandler? and as to my meeting with
you there once or so, in a way, I desire you'll mention it no more; for
it's so long ago, I have no recollection of it.'
'No! why don't you remember--'
'Fiddle, faddle, what's the good of ripping up old stories about
nothing? when you're with genteel people, you must do as I do; never
talk about business at all.'
Macdersey now entered the shop, appeased by Edgar from shewing any
further wrath, but wantonly inflamed by Sir Sedley, in a dispute upon
the passion of love.
'Do you always, my dear friend,' said the Baronet, 'fall in love at
first sight?'
'To be sure I do! If a man makes a scruple of that, it's ten to one but
he's disappointed of doing it at all; because, after two or three second
sights, the danger is you may spy out some little flaw in the dear
angel, that takes off the zest, and hinders you to the longest day you
have to live.'
'Profoundly cogitated that! you think then, my vast dear sir, the
passion had more conveniently be kindled first, that the flaws may
appear after, to cure it?'
'No, sir! no! when a man's once in love, those flaws don't signify,
because he can't see them; or, if he could, at least he'd scorn to own
them.'
'Live for ever brave Ireland!' exclaimed Mrs. Arlbery; 'what cold,
phelgmatic Englishman would have made a speech of so much gallantry?'
'As to an Englishman,' said Macdersey, 'you must never mind what he says
about the ladies, because he's too sheepish to speak out. He's just as
often in love as his neighbours, only he's so shy he won't own it, till
he sees if the young fair one is as much in love as himself; but a
generous Irishman never scruples to proclaim the girl of his heart,
though he should have twenty in a year.'
'But is that perfectly delicate, my dearest sir, to the several
Dulcineas?'
'Perfectly! your Irishman is the delicatest man upon earth to the fair
sex; for he always talks of their cruelty, if they are never so kind. He
knows every honest heart will pity him, if it's true; and if it i'n't,
he is too much a man of honour not to complain all one; he knows how
agreeable it is to the dear creatures; they always take it for a
compliment.'
'Whether avowedly or clandestinely,' said Mrs. Arlbery, 'still you are
all in our chains. Even where you play the tyrant with us, we occupy all
your thoughts; and if you have not the skill to make us happy, your next
delight is to make us miserable; for though, now and then, you can
contrive to hate, you can never arrive at forgetting us.'
'Contrive to hate you!' repeated Macdersey; 'I could as soon contrive to
turn the world into a potato; there is nothing upon earth, nothing under
the whole firmament I value but beauty!'
'A cheerful glass, then,' said Sir Sedley, 'you think horridly
intolerable?'
'A cheerful glass, sir! do you take me for a milk-sop? do you think I
don't know what it is to be a man? a cheerful glass, sir, is the first
pleasure in life; the most convivial, the most exhilarating, the most
friendly joy of a true honest soul! what were existence without it? I
should choose to be off in half an hour; which I should only make so
long, not to shock my friends.'
'Well, the glass is not what I patronise,' said Sir Theophilus; 'it hips
me so consumedly the next day; no, I can't patronise the glass.'
'Not patronise wine?' cried Lord Newford; 'O hang it! O curse it! that's
too bad, Offy! but hunting! what dost think of that, little Offy?'
'Too obstreperous! It rouses one at such aukward hours; no, I can't
patronise hunting.'
'Hunting!' cried Macdersey; 'O, it leaves everything behind it; 'tis the
thing upon the earth for which I have the truest taste. I know nothing
else that is not a bauble to it. A man is no more, in my estimation,
than a child, or a woman, that don't enjoy it.'
'Cards, then,' said Sir Sedley, 'you reprobate?'
'And dice?'--cried Lord Newford--
'And betting?'--cried Sir Theophilus.
'Why what do you take me for, gentlemen?' replied Macdersey, hotly; 'Do
you think I have no soul? no fire? no feeling? Do you suppose me a
stone? a block? a lump of lead? I scorn such suspicions; I don't hold
them worth answering. I am none of that torpid, morbid, drowsy tribe. I
hold nobody to have an idea of life that has not rattled in his own hand
the dear little box of promise. What ecstasy not to know if, in two
seconds, one mayn't be worth ten thousand pounds! or else without a
farthing! how it puts one on the rack! There's nothing to compare with
it. I would not give up that moment to be sovereign of the East Indies!
no, not if the West were to be put into the bargain.'
'All these things,' said Mr. Dennel, 'are fit for nothing but to bring a
man to ruin. The main chance is all that is worth thinking of. 'Tis
money makes the mare to go; and I don't know any thing that's to be done
without it.'
'Money!' exclaimed Macdersey, 'tis the thing under heaven I hold in the
most disdain. It won't give me a moment's concern never to see its
colour again. I vow solemnly, if it were not just for the pleasures of
the table, and a jolly glass with a friend, and a few horses in one's
stable, and a little ready cash in one's purse, for odd uses, I should
not care if the mint were sunk under ground to-morrow; money is what I
most despise of all.'
'That's talking out of reason,' said Mr. Dennel, walking out of the shop
with great disgust.
'Why, if I was to speak,' said Mr. Dubster, encouraged to come forward,
by an observation so much to his own comprehension and taste as the
last; 'I can't but say I think the same; for money--'
'Keep your distance, sir!' cried the fiery Ensign, 'keep your distance,
I tell you! if you don't wish I should say something to you pretty
cutting.'
This broke up the party, which else the lounging spirit of the place,
and the general consent by which all descriptions of characters seem
determined to occupy any spot whatever, to avoid a moment's abode in
their lodgings, would still have detained till the dinner hour had
forced to their respective homes. To suppress all possibility of further
dissention, Mrs. Arlbery put Miss Dennel under the care of Macdersey,
and bid him attend her towards Mount Pleasant.
Mr. Dubster, having stared after them some time in silence, called out:
'Keep my distance! I can't but say but what I think that young Captain
the rudest young gentleman I ever happened to light upon! however, if he
don't like me, I shan't take it much to heart; I can't pretend to say I
like him any better; so he may choose; it's much the same to me; it
breaks no squares.'
Edgar, almost without knowing it, followed Camilla, but he could
displace neither the Baronet nor the Major, who, one with a look of open
exultation, and the other with an air of determined perseverance,
retained each his post at her side.
He saw that all her voluntary attention was to Sir Sedley, and that the
Major had none but what was called for and inevitable. Was this
indifference, or security? was she seeking to obtain in the Baronet a
new adorer, or to excite jealousy, through his means, in an old one?
Silent he walked on, perpetually exclaiming to himself: 'Can it be
Camilla, the ingenuous, the artless Camilla, I find it so difficult to
fathom, to comprehend, to trust?'
He had not spirits to join Mrs. Arlbery, though he lamented he had not,
at once, visited her; since it was now awkward to take such a step
without an invitation, which she seemed by no means disposed to offer
him. She internally resented the little desire he had ever manifested
for her acquaintance; and they had both too much penetration not to
perceive how wide either was from being the favourite of the other.