Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/293

 the event of all the disorder she had described in her family; but as soon as she had breakfasted the next day, she gratified their curiosity by proceeding as follows.

" you at first that Dorimene's having no other engagement, the advantage of the match, and her father's commands, were the reasons which induced her to give her hand to the Marquis de Stainville; his excessive fondness for her, and making it his whole study to promote her happiness, worked so strongly on her mind, that, in return, she did everything in her power to oblige him, and he flattered himself that all her affections were centred in him; nor, indeed, did she ever seem so much inclined to be pleased with the admiration of other men, as the custom of France would even allow her without censure. But when the Chevalier Dumont first told us his story, she was affected with it to an incredible degree; whole days and nights passed, and she could fix her thoughts on no other subject.

"The tenderness he expressed for his mother, his justifying his father, notwithstanding all he suffered by his conduct, with his sincere friendship for the Marquis her husband, worked so strongly on her imagination, that she thought giving way to the highest esteem for him would be the greatest proof imaginable of her virtue; but it was not long before she was undeceived, for she found her inclination for the Chevalier was built rather on what we call taste (because we want a word to express it by) than any approbation of his conduct. The great agitation of her mind, between her endeavours to conquer her