and becoming acquainted with them; and if at the expiration of a year her affection for you remains unchanged, and you return to demand her, I will with pleasure give my blessing to your union. But now, sir, your hand and your word of honour, that you will neither acquaint Mimili with the subject of this conversation, nor seek to obtain any promise from her, that she may not consider herself engaged to you, but remain free, as a Swiss maiden ought, who has not plighted her troth to any man. Meanwhile I shall throw no obstacles in your way, but leave every thing to God, whose dispensations are always for the best.”
I wish I had had a mirror in my hand, that I might have seen the face I made at this declaration. I am certain it must have been an immensely long one.
In prescribing a year of probation, was the father in real earnest, or was it a mere stratagem to get me quietly to the other side of the mountains, and then to chaffer away Mimili’s hand to some Swiss bumpkin, whom he had already in petto, and who could throw into the scale as many Alps and cows as the old fellow possessed?
That opposition would be of no avail, I was thoroughly convinced by his firmness. My own feelings moreover told me, that in this case importunity was not to be resorted to; that a
