Thus, however, could my sister make it out--'Upon her word, she
believed Mr. Lovelace deserved not the bad character he had as to
women.--He was really, to her thinking, a modest man. He would have
spoken out, she believed; but once or twice as he seemed to intend to
do so, he was under so agreeable a confusion! Such a profound
respect he seemed to shew her! A perfect reverence, she thought: she
loved dearly that a man in courtship should shew a reverence to his
mistress'--So indeed we all do, I believe: and with reason; since, if
I may judge from what I have seen in many families, there is little
enough of it shewn afterwards.--And she told my aunt Hervey, that she
would be a little less upon the reserve next time he came: 'She was
not one of those flirts, not she, who would give pain to a person that
deserved to be well-treated; and the more pain for the greatness of
his value for her.'--I wish she had not somebody whom I love in her
eye.

In his third visit, Bella governed herself by this kind and
considerate principle: so that, according to her own account of the
matter, the man might have spoken out.--But he was still bashful: he
was not able to overcome this unseasonable reverence. So this visit
went off as the former.

But now she began to be dissatisfied with him. She compared his
general character with this his particular behaviour to her; and
having never been courted before, owned herself puzzled how to deal
with so odd a lover. 'What did the man mean, she wondered? Had not
her uncle brought him declaredly as a suitor to her?--It could not be
bashfulness (now she thought of it) since he might have opened his
mind to her uncle, if he wanted courage to speak directly to her.--Not