" said Henrietta,
that entitle you to a worthier conquest

than of a man, who, not having it in his power to marry you, yet dishonourably seeks to ensnare your affections.


It is natural to wish to be beloved by those we love,
replied miss Belmour:
I am convinced Mr. Campley loves me.

"If he loved you sincerely, madam," said Henrietta,
he would not make you unhappy; true love never seeks the ruin of its object: disinterestedness is the test of love; try Mr. Campley's by that.


Mr. Campley has no mean, selfish designs upon my fortune,
cried miss Belmour.


His designs are mean and selfish in the highest degree,
replied Henrietta,
since he expects that to make him happy you should sacrifice your peace, your honour, and your reputation; and should he succeed in these designs, which heaven forbid, the neglect he will soon treat you with will convince you, that love, when not founded on esteem, cannot be lasting: for the contempt which even libertines feel for those whom they have seduced, is a proof of that secret homage which all men pay to virtue.


If I thought Mr. Campley would ever fail in the respect and adoration he pays me now,
said miss Belmour, "I should hate him."


The only way to preserve that respect, madam,
replied Henrietta,
is not to allow him to encourage any presumptuous hopes: if you wish to keep his heart, engage his esteem; he may one time or other, perhaps, be at liberty to offer you his hand.

"Ah, Henrietta!" interrupted miss Belmour, sighing,
that time is very distant, I fear: but you have put strange thoughts into my head; I have been to blame to suffer Mr. Campley to talk to me so freely of his passion: indeed I think he has been less respectful, since I suffered him to perceive that I presered him to all the men I ever saw. I own to you freely that it was my apprehensions of losing him that made me listen to his arguments; for I thought, if I reduced him to despair, he would conquer his passion for me: but what if the very means I have used to keep his heart should prove the cause of his slighting me!—Oh! you do not know what anxious, uneasy doubts you have raised in my mind!—However, I am resolved to behave with more reserve to him for the future. I will try whether his passion is strong enough to subsist of itself; for you have
