To Miss Montague, at Silleri.
Montreal, March 19.
If you are not absolutely resolved on destruction, my dear Emily, it
is yet in your power to retrieve the false step you have made.
Sir George, whose good-nature is in this instance almost without
example, has been prevailed on by Mr. Melmoth to consent I should write
to you before he leaves Montreal, and again offer you his hand, though
rejected in a manner so very mortifying both to vanity and love.
He gives you a fortnight to consider his offer, at the end of which
if you refuse him he sets out for England over the lakes.
Be assured, the man for whom it is too plain you have acted this
imprudent part, is so far from returning your affection, that he is at
this moment addressing another; I mean Madame Des Roches, a near
relation of whose assured me that there was an attachment between them:
indeed it is impossible he could have thought of a woman whose fortune
is as small as his own. Men, Miss Montague, are not the romantic beings
you seem to suppose them; you will not find many Sir George Claytons.
I beg as early an answer as is consistent with the attention so
important a proposal requires, as a compliment to a passion so generous
and disinterested as that of Sir George. I am, my dear Emily,
Your affectionate friend,
E. Melmoth.