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"thofe; and whether fhe fmiles or frowns, 'tis all "in tender love.

"Such to us, tho' infinitely high and awful, is "PROVIDENCE: So it watches over us; comfort"ing thefe; providing for thofe ; liftening to all; "affifting every one: And if fometimes it denies "the favour we implore, it denies but to invite our more earnest prayers; or, feeming to deny a bleffing, grants one in that refufal."

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When the tranflation was read aloud, the tears, that before were starting, trickled down the sweet girl's cheeks. But the commendations every one joined in, and especially the praises given her by her guardian, drove away every cloud from her face.

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LETTER III.

Sir CHARLES GRANDISON, To Mifs GRANDISON.

My dear Charlotte,

Friday, March 17. HAVE already feen Captain Anderfon. Richard Saunders, whom I fent with your letter as foon as I came to town, found him at his lodgings near Whitehall. He expreffed himself, on reading it before the fervant, with indifcreet warmth. I would not make minute enquiries after his words, because I intended an amicable meeting with him.

We met at four yesterday afternoon, at the Cocoa-tree in Pallmall: Lieut. Col. Mackenzie, and Major Dillon, two of his friends, with whom I had no acquaintance, were with him. The Captain and I withdrew to a private room. The two gentlemen entered with us.

You

You will on this occafion, I know, expect me to be particular: you must allow, that I had no good caufe to manage; fince thofe points that had moft weight (and which were the ground of your objections to him when you faw him in a near light) could not be pleaded without affronting him;. and if they had, would hardly have met with his allowance; and could therefore have no force in the argument.

On the two gentlemen entering the room with us, without apology or objection, I asked the Captain,, If they were acquainted with the affair we met upon? He faid, They were his dear and infeparable friends, and knew every fecret of his heart. Perhaps in this cafe, Captain Anderson, returned I, it were as well they did not.

We are men of honour, Sir Charles Grandifon, faid the Major brifkly.

I don't doubt it, Sir. But where the delicacy of a lady is concerned, the hearts of the principals fhould be the whole world to each other. But what is done, is done. I am ready to enter upon the affair before these gentlemen, if you chuse it, Cap-

tain.

You will find us to be gentlemen, Sir Charles, faid the Colonel.

The Captain then began, with warmth, his own ftory. Indeed he told it very well. I was pleased, for my fifter's fake (pardon me, Charlotte), that he did. He is not contemptible, either in perfon or understanding. He may be faid, perhaps, to be an illiterate, but he is not an ignorant man; tho' not the person whom the friends of Charlotte Grandifon would think worthy of the firft place in her heart.

After he had told his story (which I need not repeat to you), he infifted upon your promife: And his two friends declared in his favour, with airs, each man a little too peremptory. I told them fo;

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and that they must do me the juftice to confider me as a man of fome fpirit, as well as themfelves. I came hither with a friendly intention, gentlemen, faid I. I do not love to follow the lead of hafty fpirits But if you expect to carry any point with me, it must not be either by raised voices, or heightened complexions.

Their features were all at once changed: And they faid, they meant not to be warm.

I told the Captain, That I would not enter into a minute defence of the lady, tho' my fifter. I owned that there had appeared a precipitation in her conduct. Her treatment at home, as the apprehended, was not anfwerable to her merits. She was young, and knew nothing of the world. Young ladies were often ftruck by appearances. You, Captain Anderson, faid I, have advantages in perfon and manner, that might obtain for you a young lady's attention: And as fhe might believe herself circumstanced in her family, I wonder not that she lent an ear to the addrefs of a gallant man; whose command in that neighbourhood, and, I doubt not, whose behaviour in that command, added to his confequence. But I take it for granted, Sir, that you met with difficulties from her, when the came to reflect upon the difreputation of a young woman's carrying on clandeftinely a correfpondence with a man, of whofe address her father, then living, was not likely to approve. There was none of that violent paffion on either fide, that precludes reason, discretion, duty. It is no wonder then, that a woman of Charlotte Grandifon's known good sense fhould reflect, fhould confider: And perhaps the lefs, that you should therefore feek to engage her by promise. But what was the promife? It was not the promise that, it feems, you fought to engage her to make; to be abfolutely yours, and no other man's: But it was, That she would not marry any other man without your confent, while you remained

remained single: An unreasonable promife, however, I will prefume to fay, either to be propofed, or fubmitted to !

Sir faid the Captain, and looked the foldier. I repeated what I laft faid.

Sir! again faid the Captain; and looked upon his friends, who pointed each his head at the other, and at him, by turns-as if they had faid, Very free language.

For, Sir, proceeded I, did it not give room to think, that you had either fome doubts of your own merit with the lady, or of her affection and steadinefs? And in either cafe, ought it to have been proposed? ought it to have been made? For my part, I fhould difdain to think of any woman for a wife, who gave me reason to imagine, that he was. likely to balance a moment, as to her choice of me, or any other man.

Something in that! faid the Colonel.

As you explain yourself, Sir Charles, faid the Major

The Captain, however, fat fwelling. He was not fo eafily fatisfied.

Your motive, we are not to question, Captain, was love. Mifs Grandifon is a young woman whom any man may love. By the way, where a man is affured of a return of love, there is no occafion for a promise. But a promife was made. My fifter is a woman of honour. She thinks herself bound by it; and the is content to lead a fingle life to the end. of it, if you will not acquit her of this promife. Yet the leaves, and at the time did leave you free. You will have the juftice, Sir, to allow, that there is a generofity in her conduct to you, which remains for you to fhew to her, fince a promife fhould not be made but on equal terms. Would you hold her to it, and be not held yourself? She defires not to hold you. Let me tell you, Captain, that if I had been. in your fituation, and had been able to prevail upon

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myself to endeavour to bring a lady to make me fuch a promife, I fhould have doubted her love of me, had fhe not fought to bind me to her by an equal tie. What! fhould I have faid to myself, is this lady dearer to me than all the women upon earth? Do I feek to bind her to me by a folemn promife, which fhall give me a power over her? And has The fo little regard for me, as not to value whether I marry any other woman?

The gentlemen looked upon one another, but were filent. I proceeded.

Let us fet this matter in its true light. Here is a young woman, who had fuffered herself to be embarrassed in a treaty that her whole heart, she affures me, was never in. This was her fault. But know we not how inextricable are the entanglements of love, as it is called, when young women are brought to enter into correfpondence with men? Our fex have opportunities of knowing the world, which the other have not. Experience, gentlemen, engaging with inexperience, and perhaps the difference of twice the number of years [Sir! faid the Captain!] the combat must be too unequal. How artfully do men endeavour to draw in the woman whom they think it worth their while to pursue !-But would any man here wish to marry a woman, who declares that fhe was infenfibly drawn in beyond her purpose? Who fhewed, when the refufed to promise that she would be his, in preference to all other men, that she did not love him above all other men? Who, when the was prevailed on to fetter herself, made him not of confequence enough to herfelf to bind him? And, in a word, who has long ago declared to him, and steadily perfifts in the declaration, That the never will be his?-You feem, gentlemen, to be men of fpirit. Would you wish to marry the firft woman on earth on these terms, if you could obtain her-which, however, is not the cafe; fince Mifs Grandifon's

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