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I thank you, my dear Sir, for this ready and hearty acquiescence in the first wish of my heart.

Nay; you rate my acquiescence somewhat beyond its real worth: it is neither ready nor hearty.

I am very sorry if my proposals to your niece do in any respect displease you, Colonel Frankland.

They do me honour, Sir John, and displease me as little as any offer of the kind could have done, with one exception; for I will deal honestly with you.

I respect your sincerity, though it gives me the pain of knowing there is one whom you would have preferred to me.

But it is a preference arising more from the partiality of my own feelings, than from any superior pretensions in the man.

I thank you for this candour, and will not conceal from you that I considered Clermont as