Page:Arabella (Second Edition - Volume 1).pdf/245

This page needs to be proofread.

and the like; you have no Reason to fear such a Misfortune by my means—

Alas! replied Sir George, you Beauties make very nice Distinctions in these Cases; and think, if you do not directly command your Lovers to die, you are no-ways accountable for their Death: And when a Lover, as it often happens, dies through Despair of ever being able to make himself beloved; or, being doomed to Banishment or Silence, falls into a Fever, from which nothing but Kindness can recover him; and, that being denied, he patiently expires; I say, when these Things happen, as they certainly do every Day; How can you hold yourselves guiltless of their Deaths, which are apparently occasioned, either by your Scorn or Insensibility?

Sir Charles and Miss Glanville were extremely diverted at this Speech of Sir George's; and Mr. Glanville, though he would have wished he had been raillying any other Person's Follies than his Cousin's, yet could not help smiling at the solemn Accent, in which he delivered himself—

Arabella, mightily pleased with his Manner of talking, was resolved to furnish him with more Occasions of diverting the Company at her Expence.

I see, answered she, you are one of those Persons, who call a just Decorum, which all Ladies, who love Glory as they ought to do, are obliged to preserve, by the Name of Severity: But pray, what would you have a Lady do, whom an importunate Lover presumes to declare his Passion to? You know it is not per-