Page:Castle of Wolfenbach - Parsons (1793, volume 2).djvu/147

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in the carriage between them. Mr. Weimar was hurt at her silence, "You are sullen, you are ungrateful Matilda." "No, Sir, I am neither: I am grateful for past benefits, and if I do not speak, 'tis because my sincerity or sentiments cannot be pleasing." "You are mistaken (said he;) I wish you to speak with sincerity; to tell me why you forsook the friend of your youth,—the man who offered to make you his by every holy tie, to fly with an acquaintance of a day, and who, after all his professions, at last placed you in a convent?" "It was my own voluntary choice, Sir, and very distressing to my friends, that I persisted in choosing a retirement from the world. To the first part of your question 'tis not necessary for me to answer: you know my motives for quitting your house, and for the subsequent offer of your hand, if you really were sincere, I must confess I think circumstances more than inclination prompted you to it. How you mean to dispose of me, or by what right you assume to yourself to be master of my destiny, I know not; but of