Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/255

 into a discourse of what we were both so full of. I therefore soon made some trifling excuse, and left her; and I believe this separation at that time was the most agreeable thing which could have happened to her. "The moment I was alone, and had an opportunity to reflect on the foregoing scene, young as I then was, I could not avoid seeing the cause of Juliè's behaviour: it appeared very odd to me, that a girl of her sense should, in so short a time, be thus violently attached to a man; and had it not appeared so very visibly, the improbability of it would have made me overlook it. For my own part, I neither liked nor disliked the gentleman, but was perfectly averse to marriage, unless 1 had a tender regard for the man I was to live with as a husband. But I began now to think that a man who was capable of making such a conquest, without even endeavouring at it, must have something very uncommon in him; and was resolved therefore to observe him more narrowly for the future. I begged my father would give me leave to converse with him a little while longer, without being thought for that reason engaged in honour to live with him for ever; for certainly it is very unreasonable that any person should be obliged immediately to determine a point of such great importance. "Juliè now avoided me as much as formerly she used to contrive all ways of being with me; and whenever we were together, her downcast eyes and anxious looks sufficiently declared her uneasiness at my having discovered a secret she would willingly  have concealed within her own bosom. "My lover, being now admitted to converse with me, seemed to make no doubt but that he should soon gain my affections, and grew every day more and more particular to me. I don't know what was the reason of it (for he was far from being a