hrowing off his
intercourse with Melanthe, but none that could give him the least
prospect of success in his designs on Louisa while they lived together
and continued friends: to part them therefore was his aim, and to
accomplish it the following method came into his head.

On his first acquaintance with these ladies his design was wholly on
Louisa, but meeting a rebuff from her, his vanity rather than his
inclinations had made him turn his devoirs to Melanthe, who too easily
yielding to his suit, served but to heighten his desires for the other:
the extravagant fondness of that unhappy woman rendering her visibly
uneasy at even the ordinary civilities she saw him behave with to any
other, discovered to him that jealousy was not the least reigning foible
of her foul, and the surest means to make her hate that person whom it
was not the interest of his passion she should continue to love. When
they were alone together one day at the place of their usual rendezvous,
in the midst of the most tender endearments, he asked suddenly if she
had ever made Louisa the confident of his happiness. She was a little
surprized at the question, but answered that she had not, and desired to
know the reason of that demand; because, cried he, I am very certain she
is no friend to our loves; and by the manner in which she behaves to me,
whenever she has the least opportunity of shewing her ill humour, I
imagined she either knew or suspected the affair between us.

Melanthe, conscious she had hid nothing from her, and also sensible of
the little approbation she gave to her intrigue, was very much picqued
that she should have done any thing to make the count perceive
it;--whatever she suspects, cried she, haughtily, she ought not to treat
with any ill manners a person whom I avow a friendship for. Vanity,
answered he, sometimes gets the better of discretion in ladies of her
years:--she knows herself handsome, and cannot have a good opinion of
the man who prefers any charms to her own.--I imagine this to be the
cause why she looks on me with such disdain, and, whenever you are not
witness of her words, is so keen in satyrical reflections.--On our first
acquaintance she looked and spoke with greater softness, and I can
impute it to no other motive than the pride of beauty, that this sudden
change has happened.

All the time he was speaking, the soul of Melanthe grew more and more
fired with jealousy.--It is natural for every one to imagine wh