Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/286

emotions. She was sitting on a sofa, looking pale as death, but more beautiful, more interesting than ever. Trembling I advanced, and would have flung myself at her feet.—"Hold, my Lord (said she, in a faint but serious voice) this humiliation neither becomes you nor me; have the goodness to be seated, and hear me with compassion, and without displeasure." I took my seat. "My Lord (continued she, in a firmer voice) think me not ungrateful, or insensible to your merits, or my great obligations to your generosity and humanity; I feel, I acknowledge all: You have claims I never can reward, and to give you my hand, circumstanced as I am, would be a base return for favours so unbounded.—My Lord, I have no heart to give! that has long been in the possession of another; my father knows it well, but as his consent could not be obtained to an union he thought unworthy of his approbation, I have sworn never to marry without it—I never will; but neither can I, will I, ever give my hand to another; deign then, my Lord, to withdraw