Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/194

 ed for that unfortunate young man would terminate unhappily.

"It was the soft melancholy of his air, the tuneful accents of his voice, and the effusions of a bright understanding and pleasing vivacity, which now and then broke through the cloud that seemed to overcast his mind: It was those affecting appearances that stole insensibly into my heart, and to see Ferdinand was to pity him; pity soon ripened into esteem and affection, and now there is an end of all."

"Do not decide so peremptorily," said her father; "hope may still exist."

"You once before told me so, Sir," returned she; "but I have never listened to the flatterer; yet I had brought my mind to a comparative degree of content, when he was so unexpectedly restored to us; not that I could ever flatter myself with his esteem, nor circumstanced as he was, ought I to have wished for it."