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Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn
page 29 of 511 (05%)
me; and my mother seeing them look so fair and fresh, snatch'd the
basket with a greediness I have not seen in her before; whilst she was
calling to her page for a porcelain dish to put them out, _Dorillus_
had an opportunity to hint to me what lay at the bottom: heavens! had
you seen my disorder and confusion; what should I do? Love had not one
invention in store, and here it was that all the subtlety of women
abandon'd me. Oh heavens, how cold and pale I grew, lest the most
important business of my life should be betray'd and ruin'd! but not
to terrify you longer with fears of my danger, the dish came, and out
the strawberries were pour'd, and the basket thrown aside on the bank
where my mother sat, (for we were in the garden when we met
accidentally _Dorillus_ first with the basket) there were some leaves
of fern put at the bottom between the basket and letter, which by good
fortune came not out with the strawberries, and after a minute or two
I took up the basket, and walking carelessly up and down the garden,
gather'd here and there a flower, pinks and jessamine, and filling my
basket, sat down again 'till my mother had eat her fill of the fruit,
and gave me an opportunity to retire to my apartment, where opening
the letter, and finding you so near, and waiting to see me, I had
certainly sunk down on the floor, had not _Melinda_ supported me, who
only was by; something so new, and 'till now so strange, seiz'd me at
the thought of so secret an interview, that I lost all my senses, and
life wholly departing, I rested on _Melinda_ without breath or motion;
the violent effects of love and honour, the impetuous meeting tides of
the extremes of joy and fear, rushing on too suddenly, overwhelm'd my
senses; and it was a pretty while before I recover'd strength to get
to my cabinet, where a second time I open'd your letter, and read it
again with a thousand changes of countenance, my whole mass of blood
was in that moment so discompos'd, that I chang'd from an ague to a
fever several times in a minute: oh what will all this bring me to?
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