 What tortures must arise, from such a state of contradiction!
I AM truly impatient to know whether you have prevailed with your fair vestal, to renounce her vows, and enter once again into this world of cares? Be assured I am sincerely interested in

every thing that relates to you; and this, the most momentous point of your life, is of the utmost consequence


YES, Woodville, I confess it, I have been absorbed, entranced in the most delightful delusion that ever lull'd the restless heart of man! I have passed three months in paradise! I thought not of the world, nor of its cares—I even grudged the hours that nature claimed for rest, they robbed me of my Charlotte's tuneful voice, though her loved form oft visited my slumbers.—But the gay vision is now flown, and I indeed awake as from a dream!
YOU may suppose I reached Belleveue in as short a space of time as it was possible.—My Charlotte was prepared to meet me. At our first interview, through all the agonizing joy I felt, I perceived a steady calmness in her manner, that spoke the tender, the indulgent friend, not the fond mistress: the gravity of her dress added dignity to her deportment, and awed even my tumultuous wishes into silence. I looked up to her, as to a superior being; and felt myself grow little in her sight. She took advantage of my first impressions, and spoke to me in the following manner.
YOU see before you, sir, the happiest of her sex, now first permitted to indulge those fond sensations, which nature plants in every human

heart, filial, and sisterly affection.—I will confess myself still farther gratified by seeing you, the only object of a passion, which took its rise in youth and innocence, but which has long since matured into the firmest friendship, and rendered you—pardon me, my father! the first, the constant object of my prayers.
BUT let not the fond wishes of a father, or your own desires, tempt you to think that aught on earth can move me to exchange the state of tranquil happiness, I now enjoy for any other less pure, and more precarious. My vows were heard in heaven; they passed not forth from feigning or forced lips; for in the very moment I pronounced the words, my heart assented to the pious sounds, nor would I then have changed my situation, even to be lord Seymour's wife.
Nor do I now repent the choice I made, though fully satisfied both of your worth and love.
