n pure affection!

S. And yet I did not tell you of the circumstance to raise myself in
your opinion.

H. You are a sublime little thing! And yet, as you have no prospects
there, I cannot help thinking, the best thing would be to do as I have
said.

S. I would never marry a man I did not love beyond all the world.

H. I should be satisfied with less than that--with the love, or regard,
or whatever you call it, you have shown me before marriage, if that has
only been sincere. You would hardly like me less afterwards.

S. Endearments would, I should think, increase regard, where there was
love beforehand; but that is not exactly my case.

H. But I think you would be happier than you are at present. You take
pleasure in my conversation, and you say you have an esteem for me; and
it is upon this, after the honeymoon, that marriage chiefly turns.

S. Do you think there is no pleasure in a single life?

H. Do you mean on account of its liberty?

S. No, but I feel that forced duty is no duty. I have high ideas of
the married state!

H. Higher than of the maiden state?

S. I understand you, Sir.

H. I meant nothing; but you have sometimes spoken of any serious
attachment as a tie upon you. It is not that you prefer flirting with
"gay young men" to becoming a mere dull domestic wife?

S. You have no right to throw out such insinuations: for though I am
but a tradesman's daughter, I have as nice a sense of honour as anyone
can have.

H. Talk of a tradesman's daughter! you would ennoble any family, thou
glorious girl, by true nobility of mind.

S. Oh! Sir, you flatter me. I know my own inferiority to most.

H. To none; there is no one above thee, man nor woman either. You are
above your situation, which is not fit for you.

S. I am contented with my lot, and do my duty as cheerfully as I can.

H. Have you not told me your spirits grow worse every year?

S. Not on that account: but some disappointments are hard to bear up
against.

H. If you talk about that, you'll unman me. But tell me, my love,--I
have thought of it as something that might account for some
circumstances; that is, as a mere possibility. But tell me, there was
not a likeness between me and your old lover that struck you at first
sight? Was there?

S. No, Sir, none.

H. Well, I didn't think it likely there should.

S. But there was a likeness.

H. To whom?

S. To that little image! (looking intently