ch occasion He took refuge
in his eloquence; He overpowered her with a torrent of Philosophical
paradoxes, to which, not understanding them, it was impossible for her
to reply; And thus though He did not convince her that his reasoning
was just, He at least prevented her from discovering it to be false.
He perceived that her respect for his judgment augmented daily, and
doubted not with time to bring her to the point desired.

He was not unconscious that his attempts were highly criminal: He saw
clearly the baseness of seducing the innocent Girl: But his passion
was too violent to permit his abandoning his design. He resolved to
pursue it, let the consequences be what they might. He depended upon
finding Antonia in some unguarded moment; And seeing no other Man
admitted into her society, nor hearing any mentioned either by her or
by Elvira, He imagined that her young heart was still unoccupied. While
He waited for the opportunity of satisfying his unwarrantable lust,
every day increased his coldness for Matilda. Not a little was this
occasioned by the consciousness of his faults to her. To hide them
from her He was not sufficiently master of himself: Yet He dreaded
lest, in a transport of jealous rage, She should betray the secret on
which his character and even his life depended. Matilda could not but
remark his indifference: He was conscious that She remarked it, and
fearing her reproaches, shunned her studiously. Yet when He could not
avoid her, her mildness might have convinced him that He had nothing to
dread from her resentment. She had resumed the character of the gentle
interesting Rosario: She taxed him not with ingratitude; But her eyes
filled with involuntary tears, and the soft melancholy of her
countenance and voice uttered complaints far more touching than words
could have conveyed. Ambrosio was not unmoved by her sorrow; But
unable to remove its cause, He forbore to show that it affected him.
As her conduct convinced him that He needed not fear her vengeance, He
continued to neglect her, and avoided her company with care. Matilda
saw that She in vain attempted to regain his affections: Yet She
stifled the impulse of resentment, and continued to treat her
inconstant Lover with her former fondness and attention.

By degrees Elvira's constitution recovered itself. She was no longer
troubled with convulsions, and Antonia ceased to tremble for her
Mother. Ambrosio beheld this reestablishment with