him how particular our mutual absence from the company would seem,
unless we could condescend to tell some falsehood, which I would not I
said suppose possible to either of us, I prevailed on him to subscribe
to this short delay.

His passions and feelings are strong. One minute he seemed affected by
the approbation which, as far as I could with truth, I did not scruple
to bestow on his many superior gifts; and the next to conceive some
chagrin that I should for a moment hesitate. The noblest natures,
Louisa, are the most subject to pride, can the least endure neglect,
and are aptest to construe whatever is not directly affirmative in
their favour into injustice.

With respect to the Count de Beaunoir, he has been more passionate, in
expressing how much he admires me, than my reserve to him can have
authorised; except so far as he follows the manners of his country, and
the impulse of his peculiar character. I suppose he means little;
though he has said much. Not that I am certain. He may be more in
earnest than I desire; but I hope he is not; because, if I am to be
your sister as well as your friend, I should be sorry that any thing
should excite a shadow of doubt in the mind of Clifton.

The Count is one of the Provencal nobility; a whimsical creature, with
an imagination amazingly rapid, but extravagant. Your brother calls him
Count Shatter-brain; and I tell him that he forgets he has some claim
to the title himself. The Count has read the old Provencal poets, and
romance writers, till he has made himself a kind of Don Quixote; except
that he has none of the Don's delightful systematic gravity. The Count
on the contrary amuses by his want of system, and his quick, changeable
incongruity. He is in raptures one moment with what he laughs at the