part,' continued he, 'my fortune is pretty large, love, liberty,
and pleasure, are my maxims; but curse me if a settlement of half
my estate could give my charming Olivia pleasure, it should be
hers; and the only favour I would ask in return would be to add
myself to the benefit.' I was not such a stranger to the world as
to be ignorant that this was the fashionable cant to disguise the
insolence of the basest proposal; but I made an effort to
suppress my resentment. 'Sir,' cried I, 'the family which you now
condescend to favour with your company, has been bred with as
nice a sense of honour as you. Any attempts to injure that, may
be attended with very dangerous consequences. Honour, Sir, is our
only possession at present, and of that last treasure we must be
particularly careful.'--I was soon sorry for the warmth with
which I had spoken this, when the young gentleman, grasping my
hand, swore he commended my spirit, though he disapproved my
suspicions. 'As to your present hint,' continued he, 'I protest
nothing was farther from my heart than such a thought. No, by all
that's tempting, the virtue that will stand a regular siege was
never to my taste; for all my amours are carried by a coup de
main.'

The two ladies, who affected to be ignorant of the rest, seemed
highly displeased with this last stroke of freedom, and began a
very discreet and serious dialogue upon virtue: in this my wife,
the chaplain, and I, soon joined; and the 'Squire himself was at
last brought to confess a sense of sorrow for his former
excesses. We talked of the pleasures of temperance, and of the
sun-shine in the mind unpolluted with guilt. I was so well
pleased, that my little ones were kept up beyond the usual time
to be edified by so much good conversation. Mr Thornhill even