it not more really honourable to lay myself open and leave the
matter to your decision? If we are united, three individuals are
miserable for life; but it shall rest with you, oh, my excellent
Helen; forgive and pity

"Your still affectionate,

"EDWARD."

What a blow was this to her warm and sanguine heart! What a return to
love, so trustingly bestowed! She uttered not one reproach in her
reply, but merely released him from every promise, and wished him
every happiness.

She had, from the tenor of all his late letters, had a presentiment of
coming evil; but she could hardly, till that cruel one, just given to
the reader, realize its full extent; but the young do, and must feel
keenly in these matters,--females in particular,--and, if
right-minded, their all is embarked, and, if founded on esteem, the
affections are not given by halves; and I firmly believe the author,
who says, "Man is the creature of ambition and interest; his nature
leads him forth into the struggle and bustle of the world. Love is but
the embellishment of his early life, or a song, piped between the
intervals, But a woman's whole life is a history of her affections;
the heart is _her world_; it is there, her ambition strives for
empire; it is there, her avarice seeks for treasures. She sends forth
her sympathies on adventures, and embarks her all in the traffic of
affection, and, if shipwrecked, unless she be strongly supported by
religious principles, it is a complete bankruptcy of her happiness."