ABSTRACT
It was some days before Miss Forester could be removed without danger. Our hero, by his strong solicitude, and a thousand nameless attentions, discovered more forcibly than language could express, how much he was interested in her safety. During the little interval before her departure, he found reason to be more and more confirmed in the tender prepossessions which he had entertained for her; and Dr. Homily testified, on all occasions, the most marked esteem for his former favourite. Indeed her mental accomplishments had kept pace with the rapid progress of her personal charms, / and her habitual sweetness of disposition gave an irresistible attraction to both. Yet our hero, though frequently alone with her, and eagerly inventing a thousand schemes to amuse her, behaved in so respectful a manner, so distant from any declaration of affection, that nothing could be more grateful to the dignified mind of Letitia than this silent homage, this studious effort to avoid any solicitation or address that might seem to derive liberty from obligation conferred. Though the old passion of our hero had now recurred with double energy, and he never could expect a more favourable opportunity of discovering it, he was determined rather to perish with the secret, than to owe the power to her misfortune, and his embrace of it, to an apparent sense of the services he had rendered her. This noble conflict of love and honour did not escape the penetration, or pass without a due reward from the growing esteem, of the gentle Letitia; but her prudence and generosity / made her lament an adventure which promised to interrupt her own peace and that of a young gentleman, who, though in birth and merit equal to her, would almost certainly be insulted by her friends, not only from the arrogance of superior wealth, but from the unhappy misunderstanding which her brother’s conduct to our hero had produced in the family.
