ABSTRACT
While these scenes were passing at Bristol Hot Wells, Ethelinde and her father, attended by Montgomery, reached London. The attachment which had been forming ever since the first moment of their acquaintance between these young people, encreased every moment that they were together. In the mind of Montgomery, the beauty of Ethelinde was, however interesting and captivating, forgotten in contemplating the sweetness of her disposition, and the tenderness of her heart. Her attention to her father, her anxiety for her brother, the fortitude which she assumed in the hope of alleviating the wretchedness of the one, and the sacrifices she prepared to make to relieve the pecuniary distresses of the other, were such proofs of genuine goodness and greatness of soul, that Montgomery, who was all spirit and generosity, must have loved such qualities wherever he had met them; but when he discovered them in a young and lovely woman, and knew that in an heart so noble and yet so soft he had himself the tenderest interests,a his love amounted to adoration. A passion so violent, acting on an ardent temper, and encouraged by the sympathy raised in the bosom of her who was its object, could neither be concealed or restrained. Montgomery spoke openly of it to Colonel Chesterville; who, depressed as he was by the calamitous situation of his son, and oppressed with pecuniary embarrassments of his own, could hardly with prudence listen to a passion which promised only a continuation of distress to his daughter. He could not but see that it was mutual, and therefore knew that to repress it must be fatal: he could not but feel that to encourage it was wild and romantic, and that every way unhappiness must attend it; yet so partial did he find himself towards Montgomery, so winning was the open candour of his manner, so attractive the warm generosity, the manly spirit, and genuine integrity of his temper, that Chesterville found it impossible to deny him his esteem and affection; and while he dared not encourage the elevated and sanguine hopes which he yet formed of making his fortune, he lamented that one fatal and apparently insurmountable object would make it impossible for him to give his daughter to the man, who, had he possessed only a competence for her support, he would have preferred to the most splendid fortune, and the most elevated connections.
