Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 1).djvu/196

 shall not be the wife of the noble gentleman that she doats on to distraction. I know my own business well, and can by it earn the means of subsisting myself, and lending aid to my mother and her orphan children. Mr. Hamilton, I love you too well to hear an offer dictated by pity, or at best the feeling gratitude of a kind heart." "No, upon my soul," said Hamilton, "'tis love for the woman who possesses so many charms, and, highest of them all, such an affection for myself."

Soothing speeches and caresses unbent, in considerable degree, the resolution of Miss Collings, and though she continued firmly determined not to marry a youth whom she regarded as the first of human beings, and destined to arrive at the highest situations, yet she felt that she could not exercise the same firmness in resisting the repetition of former errors.