, could not answer his hopes, nor reduce her to
render herself wretched by becoming his wife, or to exasperate her
parents by refusing him. She then added all her heart could suggest to
flatter him into compliance with this request.

Mr Morgan's foible was not an excess of delicacy; he told her plainly,
he admired her eloquence prodigiously, but that there was more rhetoric
in her beauty than any composition of words could contain; which
pleading in direct contradiction to all she had said, she must excuse
him, if he was influenced by the more powerful oratory of her charms;
and her good sense and unexceptionable conduct convinced him, that when
it became her duty to love him, she would no longer remain indifferent.

All Miss Melvyn could urge to shew him this was but a very poor
dependence, had no sort of weight, and he parted from her only more
determined to hasten the conclusion of their marriage.

Lady Melvyn had not been idle all this time; she had prevailed on young
Simon to acquiesce in the questions she put to him before Sir Charles,
either by giving short answers, or by down cast eyes, which signified
assent. With this Sir Charles acquainted Miss Melvyn, and insisted on
her not thinking of exposing herself to the indignity of having the
whole affair discussed in her presence. All the indignation that
undeserved calumny can excite in an innocent mind could not have enabled
Miss Melvyn to bear being charged before so low a creature, with a
passion for him, and still less to have heard the suborned wretch
pretend to confess it. She therefore found no difficulty in obeying her
father in that particular, and rather chose to submit to the imputation
than to undergo the shame which she must have suffered in endeavouring
to confute it. She attempted to persuade Sir Charles to permit her to
stay in the house under what restrictions he and his lady should think
proper, till her conduct should sufficiently convince him of her
innocence, and not to force her into a hated marriage, or unjustly
expose her to disgrace and infamy. Her tears and intreaties would soon
have softened his heart; and as far as he dared he shewed an inclination
to comply with so reasonable a proposal; but his lady easily obliged him
to retract and to deprive Miss Melvyn of all hopes of any mitigation of
the sentence already pronounced against her.

Could she without the loss of reputation have fled to a remote part of
the kingdom, and have hid her