They are apprehensive that Mr. Lovelace will be there with design to
come home with me.

Help me, dear Miss Howe, to a little of your charming spirit: I never
more wanted it.

The man, this Solmes, you may suppose, has no reason to boast of his
progress with me. He has not the sense to say any thing to the
purpose. His courtship indeed is to them; and my brother pretends to
court me as his proxy, truly!--I utterly, to my brother, reject his
address; but thinking a person, so well received and recommended by
all my family, entitled to good manners, all I say against him is
affectedly attributed to coyness: and he, not being sensible of his
own imperfections, believes that my avoiding him when I can, and the
reserves I express, are owing to nothing else: for, as I said, all his
courtship is to them; and I have no opportunity of saying no, to one
who asks me not the question. And so, with an air of mannish
superiority, he seems rather to pity the bashful girl, than to
apprehend that he shall not succeed.


FEBRUARY 25.


I have had the expected conference with my aunt.

I have been obliged to hear the man's proposals from her; and have
been told also what their motives are for espousing his interest with
so much warmth. I am even loth to mention how equally unjust it is
for him to make such offers, or for those I am bound to reverence to