 Dover, flattered my vanity, I will c•nfess; the continuance of his assiduities, during our stay in France, confirmed my brother's opinion of his passion for me.—But alas! I was still incapable of making any other return to his attentions, than what mere politeness exacted from me.
How often have my brother, Sir William, and you, seemed to doubt my sincerity, when I have declared I knew not

what love was! and, O! how fatal has that inexperience been to my peace, since! Yes, Fanny, your sister is a wretch! and gave away her hand, before she knew she had a heart to transfer.—
Yet this I am convinced of, that had Sir William persevered, perhaps a few months longer, in wishing still to obtain that heart, it might, I doubt not, have been all his own. But can it now bestow itself unsought, and trembling yield to harshness, and unkindness? Impossible! The little rebel owns as yet no lord, and it may breck, but it will never bow, beneath a tyrant's frown!
There never was any person's behaviour so altered as Sir William's.—I perceived a visible change in his manners,

before we left London; but it has gone on in a blessed gradation, ever since, and is at length arrived at the ne plus ultra of matrimonial disgust.—I shall tell you a short story by way of instancing the uncouthness of my present situation, with regard to him.—Sir William is naturally humane, at least he used to seem so—I was applied to by a wretched family, tenants of his own, who had lost their intire substance by fire—I immediately took ten guineas out of my purse, to pay my charity, when he, with the most supercilious air imaginable, took hold of my hand, bid me put up my money, and not meddle with matters that I did not understand—said I was rather too young for a Lady Bountiful yet; and that if I went on at that rate, they would fire every cottage on his lands, and he

should be run into a goal by my generosity. I stood amazed at this harangue—however I obeyed my husband, by putting up the money, but made Benson convey it to the poor sufferers, as from a third person; while they with transports of gratitude, acknowleged their having received twenty pounds from Sir William, tho' forbidden to reveal his bounty to his steward, or any of his family, on pain of his displeasure!
Now, pr'ythee tell me,
