Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/308

 love. I sat down by him, without knowing what I did, or whither this unseasonable complaisance would carry me. He seemed as much confused as I was, but at last he told me what he had just concluded with my brother. This again roused all my resentment; love gave way to jealousy; and I hastily replied, whatever he had agreed on with my brother, I was resolved never to consent to be his wife unless he could dear up his unaccountable behaviour; and that I thought, after his so long endeavouring to show his indifference to me, I ought to have been the first person acquainted with this new alteration of his schemes. He paused a moment, continued to fix his eyes on mine with a look which expressed ten thousand different sentiments at once, and then cried out, 'Oh! don't let Isabelle doubt my love! Could you but know what torments I have gone through whilst you had reason from appearances to think me guilty, I am sure your tender nature would pity rather than condemn me. But — Oh! Dorimene!'—The moment that name had broke from his lips, he started, appeared frightened at what he had said, and flew from me with great precipitation. "He was no sooner gone than my brother succeeded in his place; but he stayed no longer than while he could say, 'Isabelle, hearken no more to the Chevalier Dumont; resolve not to marry him; time shall unfold to you the reasons of this request.' And then he also fled my sight as hastily as Dumont had done the minute before. "What a condition was I in! What could I think? My brother, Dorimene, Dumont, all seemed involved in one common madness, and I knew not to whom to disclose my griefs: however, I was resolved for the present absolutely to avoid marrying Dumont; and as I met him again alone that evening, told him he must entirely give up that design for some time