but heard no sound. This relieved
me for the present; but so much had I
been overcome by the agitation and annoyance
attendant upon the scene which I had
just gone through, that when my cousin
Emily knocked at my door, I was weeping
in strong hysterics.

You will readily conceive my distress,
when you reflect upon my strong dislike to
my cousin Edward, combined with my
youth and extreme inexperience. Any
proposal of such a nature must have
agitated me; but that it should have come
from the man whom of all others I most
loathed and abhorred, and to whom I had,
as clearly as manner could do it, expressed
the state of my feelings, was almost too
overwhelming to be borne. It was a calamity,
too, in which I could not claim the sym-
pathy of my cousin Emily, which had
always been extended to me in my minor
grievances. Still I hoped that it might
not be unattended with good; for I
thought that one inevitable and most
welcome consequence would result from
this painful eclaircissment, in the
discontinuance of my cousin's odious
persecution.