Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/118

 and child from him, had he persisted in his claims. But her honour and delicacy could not be satisfied with a disputed title; and from the Count's subsequent conduct, there is but too much reason to believe, that in possession of her fortune, and weary of being confined to one object, and to a dissembled regularity of life, inconsistent with his libertine principles, he made use of no endeavours to reconcile her doubts, or establish her claims, but left her to her own painful conjectures, the termination of which was in all probability little less satisfactory to him than to herself, as it left him at liberty to form fresh projects, and seek for new objects."

"Upon my word," returned Mr. D'Alenberg, "I believe you have represented the affair in its true point of view; and as a man, without honour or principle, governed by the most sensual and selfish passions, his conduct wants no further explanation; nor can we wonder he should succeed with the ladies, when setting aside his personal attractions, he certainly has the most insinuating address,