h that clear sincerity which is the
cement of our friendship; has not your own heart discovered to you the
secret of mine? do you not also love this most amiable of mankind? Yes,
you do, and I am lost: it is not in woman to see him without love;
there are a thousand charms in his conversation, in his look, nay in
the very sound of his voice, to which it is impossible for a soul like
yours to be insensible.

I have observed you a thousand times listening to him with that air
of softness and complacency--Believe me, my dear, I am not angry with
you for loving him; he is formed to charm the heart of woman: I have
not the least right to complain of you; you knew nothing of my passion
for him; you even regarded me almost as the wife of another. But tell
me, though my heart dies within me at the question, is your tenderness
mutual? does he love you? I have observed a coldness in his manner
lately, which now alarms me.--My heart is torn in pieces. Must I
receive this wound from the two persons on earth most dear to me?
Indeed, my dear, this is more than your Emily can bear. Tell me only
whether you love: I will not ask more.--Is there on earth a man who
can please where he appears?

LETTER 76.

To Miss Montague.

You have discovered me, my sweet Emily: I love--not quite so
dyingly as you do; but I love; will you forgive me when I add that I am
beloved? It is unnecessary to add the name of him I love, as you have
so kindly appropriated the whole sex to Colonel Rivers.

However, to shew you it is possible you may be mistaken, 'tis the
little Fitz I love, who, in my eye, is ten times more agreable than
even your nonpareil of a Colonel; I know you will think me a shocking
wretch for this depravity of taste; but so it is.

Upon my word, I am half inclined to be angry with you for not being
in love with Fitzgerald; a tall Irishman, with good eyes, has as clear
a title to make conquests as other people.

Yes, my dear, _there is a man on earth_, and even in the little
town of Quebec, _who can please where he appears_. Surely, child,
if there was but one man on earth who could please, you would not be so
unreasonable as to engross him all to yourself.

For my part, though I like Fitzgerald extremely, I by no means
insist that every other woman shall.

Go, you are a foolish girl, and don't know what you would be at.
Rivers is a very handsome agreable fellow; but _it is in woman_ to
see him without dying for love, of wh