of each other's character--and of their own. It is really rather
amusing, this careful cold-blooded dissection of their feelings. It is a
safe guess that at this game Lady Mary scored heavily.


"I wish, with all my soul, I thought as you do," she wrote on April 25,
1710. "I endeavour to convince myself by your arguments, and am sorry my
reason is so obstinate, not to be deluded into an opinion, that 'tis
impossible a man can esteem a woman. I suppose I should then be very
easy at your thoughts of me; I should thank you for the wit and beauty
you give me, and not be angry at the follies and weaknesses; but, to my
infinite affliction, I can believe neither one nor t'other. One part of
my character is not so good, nor t'other so bad, as you fancy it. Should
we ever live together, you would be disappointed both ways; you would
find an easy equality of temper you do not expect, and a thousand faults
you do not imagine. You think, if you married me, I should be
passionately fond of you one month, and of somebody else the next:
neither would happen. I can esteem, I can be a friend, but I don't know
whether I can love. Expect all that is complaisant and easy, but never
what is fond, in me. You judge very wrong of my heart, when you suppose
me capable of views of interest, and that anything could oblige me to
flatter any body. Was I the most indigent creature in the world, I
should answer you as I do now, without adding or diminishing. I am
incapable of art, and 'tis because I will not be capable of it. Could I
deceive one minute, I should never regain my own good opinion; and who
could bear to live with one they despised? If you can resolve to live
with a companion that will have all the deference due to your
superiority of good sense, and that your proposals can be agreeable to
those on whom I depend, I have nothing to say against them."