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  • ton, on some business which would require

about half an hour's attendance, and the squire was a little after obliged to give audience to one of his tenants; so that now there remained only our hero and the object of his adoration. The reader will not doubt that Hamilton embraced so favourable an opportunity of unfolding his sentiments, which he did with mingled ardour, tenderness, and delicacy. The young lady heard him with agitation, but an agitation that appeared to arise more from apprehension than from anger. Educated with the strictest sense of decorum and propriety, as well as modesty, she thought she was wrong in listening to him; but his deportment was so respectful, engaging, and persuasive, that though she once or twice attempted it, she was unable to chide him for so hasty a declaration, or even abruptly to leave him and retire. She, in a