terms, form the common cant of a worthless
coquette. You know to the full, as
well as I, that COLDNESS AND DISCOURAGEMENT
may be so exhibited as to convince
their object that he is neither distasteful
or indifferent to the person who wears this
manner. You know, too, none better, that
an affected neglect, when skilfully managed,
is amongst the most formidable of the
engines which artful beauty can employ.
I tell you, madam, that having, without
one word spoken in discouragement,
permitted my son's most marked attentions
for a twelvemonth or more, you have no
right to dismiss him with no further
explanation than demurely telling him that
you had always looked coldly upon him;
and neither your wealth nor your LADYSHIP'
(there was an emphasis of scorn on the
word, which would have become Sir
Giles Overreach himself) 'can warrant you
in treating with contempt the affectionate
regard of an honest heart.'

I was too much shocked at this undisguised
attempt to bully me into an acquiescence
in the interested and unprincipled
plan for their own aggrandisement, which
I now perceived my uncle and his son to
have deliberately entered into, at once to