Thus was a kind of correspondence begun between him and me, with
general approbation; while every one wondered at, and was pleased
with, his patient veneration of me; for so they called it. However,
it was not doubted but he would soon be more importunate, since his
visits were more frequent, and he acknowledged to my aunt Hervey a
passion for me, accompanied with an awe that he had never known
before; to which he attributed what he called his but seeming
acquiescence with my father's pleasure, and the distance I kept him
at. And yet, my dear, this may be his usual manner of behaviour to
our sex; for had not my sister at first all his reverence?

Mean time, my father, expecting his importunity, kept in readiness the
reports he had heard in his disfavour, to charge them upon him then,
as so many objections to address. And it was highly agreeable to me
that he did so: it would have been strange if it were not; since the
person who could reject Mr. Wyerley's address for the sake of his free
opinions, must have been inexcusable, had she not rejected another's
for his freer practices.

But I should own, that in the letters he sent me upon the general
subject, he more than once inclosed a particular one, declaring his
passionate regards for me, and complaining with fervour enough, of my
reserves. But of these I took not the least notice: for, as I had not
written to him at all, but upon a subject so general, I thought it was
but right to let what he wrote upon one so particular pass off as if I
had never seen it; and the rather, as I was not then at liberty (from
the approbation his letters met with) to break off the correspondence,
unless I had assigned the true reason for doing so. Besides, with all
his respectful assiduities, it was easy to observe, (if it had not