igilance;
that I watched your words and your looks when he was present; and that I
extracted cause for the deepest inquietudes, from every token which you
gave of having put your happiness into this man's keeping?

"I was cautious in deciding. I recalled the various conversations in
which the topics of love and marriage had been discussed. As a woman,
young, beautiful, and independent, it behoved you to have fortified
your mind with just principles on this subject. Your principles were
eminently just. Had not their rectitude and their firmness been attested
by your treatment of that specious seducer Dashwood? These principles,
I was prone to believe, exempted you from danger in this new state of
things. I was not the last to pay my homage to the unrivalled capacity,
insinuation, and eloquence of this man. I have disguised, but could
never stifle the conviction, that his eyes and voice had a witchcraft
in them, which rendered him truly formidable: but I reflected on the
ambiguous expression of his countenance--an ambiguity which you were the
first to remark; on the cloud which obscured his character; and on the
suspicious nature of that concealment which he studied; and concluded
you to be safe. I denied the obvious construction to appearances. I
referred your conduct to some principle which had not been hitherto
disclosed, but which was reconcileable with those already known.

"I was not suffered to remain long in this suspence. One evening, you
may recollect, I came to your house, where it was my purpose, as usual,
to lodge, somewhat earlier than ordinary. I spied a light in your
chamber as I approached from the outside, and on inquiring of Judith,
was informed that you were writing. As your kinsman and friend, and
fellow-lodger, I thought I had a right to be familiar. You were in your
chamber, but your employment and the time were such as to make it no
infraction of decorum to follow you thither. The spirit of mischievous
gaiety possessed me. I proceeded on tiptoe. You did not perceive
my entrance; and I advanced softly till I was able to overlook your
shoulder.

"I had gone thus far in error, and had no power to recede. How
cautiously should we guard against the first inroads of temptation! I
knew that to pry into your papers was criminal; but I reflected that
no sentiment of yours was of a nature which made it your interest to
conceal it. You wrote much more than you permitted your friends to
peruse. My curiosity