Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/157

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"I met him (replied the officer), not many minutes ago, and told him where I was coming; but I could not prevail on him to give up a solitary walk he was going to take to the mountains."

"Oh, shocking! (cried Olivia) to prefer solitude to our society; I really shall not readily forgive his want of gallantry."


A pang of wounded pride and mortified tenderness now touched the heart of Madeline. She felt equally surprised and hurt to hear, that he had in reality no business to prevent his coming to see her; and that he had even refused an invitation to do so.—How ill did such conduct agree with the delight he had evinced the preceding evening at their unexpected meeting, with the anxiety he had expressed to see her again. The hopes, the expectations which that delight, that anxiety, had given rise to, and which his letter had damped, not suppressed, now entirely vanished like the fleeting pleasures of a dream; and she began to fear he