(from motives I leave those to find out who can put themselves in
her circumstances) and then fetched a soft sigh, from the thought
that she was hearing a man she loved declare a passion of which
she was not the object. But after some little pause, she told
him, that if Chloe had any faults, they were to her yet
undiscovered, and she really and sincerely believed her cousin
would make him extremely happy. Sempronius then said, that of all
other things, TREACHERY and ENVY were what he had the greatest
dislike to: and he asked her, if she did not think her cousin was
a little tainted with these?--Here Caelia could not help
interrupting, and assuring him, that she believed her totally free
from both. And, from his casting on her friend an aspersion which
her very soul abhorred, forgetting all rivalship, she could not
refrain from growing quite lavish in her praise. 'Suppose then
(said Sempronius) I was to say the same to your cousin concerning
my intentions towards you as I have to you concerning her, do you
think she would say as many fine things in your praise as you have
done in hers?'

Caelia answered, that she verily believed her cousin would say as
much for her as she really deserved; but whether that would be
equal to what with justice she could say of Chloe, her modesty
left her in some doubt of.

Sempronius had too much penetration not to see the real and true
difference in the behaviour of these two women, and could not help
crying out, 'O Caelia! your honest truth and goodness in every
word and look are too visible to leave me one doubt of their
reality. But, could you believe it? this friend of yours is
false. I have already put her to the trial, by declaring to her