determined, not to marry without her father's consent.

In the early summer of 1712, however, Lord Dorchester created a crisis.
Thinking, perhaps, that his daughter might one day get out of hand and,
in despair, defy him, he decided to find her a husband other than
Montagu. At first, from a sense of weariness and from filial duty, Lady
Mary inclined to obey the parental injunction--to her father's great
delight. All the preparations for the wedding were put in train--then,
ultimately, Lady Mary declared that she could not and would not go
through with it on any terms. Who the bridegroom was she does not
mention, but, in a manner somewhat involved, she in a letter in July,
1912, confided the whole story to Montagu.


"I am going to write you a plain long letter. What I have already told
you is nothing but the truth. I have no reason to believe I am going to
be otherwise confined than by my duty; but I, that know my own mind,
know that is enough to make me miserable. I see all the misfortune of
marrying where it is impossible to love; I am going to confess a
weakness may perhaps add to your contempt of me. I wanted courage to
resist at first the will of my relations; but, as every day added to my
fears, those, at last, grew strong enough to make me venture the
disobliging them. A harsh word damps my spirits to a degree of silencing
all I have to say. I knew the folly of my own temper, and took the
method of writing to the disposer of me. I said everything in this
letter I thought proper to move him, and proffered, in atonement for not
marrying whom he would, never to marry at all. He did not think fit to
answer this letter, but sent for me to him. He told me he was very much
surprized that I did not depend on his judgment for my future happiness;
that he knew nothing I had to complain of, &c.; that he did not doubt I