I have no absolute claims either upon his affection or fortune; the first I can perceive is much weakened, and I may have already intruded too far on the latter; yet why should I think so, when he still makes me such liberal offers? The stile in which those offers are made is what hurts me. Alas! few men that confer obligations have the graceful art of making the obliged person satisfied with the favours he receives; 'tis the manner, more than the act, that strikes a mind of sensibility."
Musing in this manner, with the letter in his hand, he had forgotten, for a few minutes, that there lay another, from which he might hope to derive more information, and greater gratification. Turning his eyes from the letter to the table, he hastily caught up the one written by Ernest: "Ah! (cried he) here at least I shall read the dictates of the heart, of pure affection without reserve."—He broke it open with precipitation, and read what follows:
