第136章[第3頁/共4頁]

“The letter shall certainly be burnt,if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard;but,though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable, they are not, I hope,quite so easily changed as that implies.”

She explained what its effect on her had been, and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed.

“Indeed I had.What will you think of my vanity?I believed you to be wishing,expecting my addresses.”

“Hate you! I was angry perhaps at first, but my anger soon began to take a proper direction.”

“Oh! do not repeat what I then said.These recollections will not do at all. I assure you that I have long been most heartily ashamed of it.”

“My manners must have been in fault,but not intentionally,I assure you.I never meant to deceive you,but my spirits might often lead me wrong.How you must have hated me after that evening?”

“I was certainly very far from expecting them to make so strong an impression.I had not the smallest idea of their being ever felt in such a way.”