Page:The female Quixote, or, The adventures of Arabella (Second Edition).pdf/253

 and clear yourself: Do you consider how deeply this Assertion wounds your Honour and Happiness for the future? What Lady, think you, will receive your Services, loaded as you are with the terrible Imputation of Inconstancy?

Oh! as for that, Madam, said Miss Glanville, I believe no Lady will think the worse of Sir George for being faithless: For my Part, I declare, nothing pleases me so much, as gaining a Lover from another Lady; which is a greater Compliment to one's Beauty, then the Addresses of a Man that never was in Love before—

You may remember, Cousin, replied Arabella, that I said once before, your Spirit and Humour resembled a certain great Princess very much; and I repeat it again, never was there a greater Conformity in Tempers and Inclinations.

My Daughter, said Sir Charles, is mightily obliged to you, Lady Bella, for comparing her to a great Princess: Undoubtedly you mean it as a Compliment.

If you think, said Arabella, that barely comparing her to a Princess be a Compliment, I must take the Liberty to differ from you: My Cousin is not so many Degrees below a Princess, as that such a Comparison should be thought extraordinary; for if her Ancestors did not wear a Crown, they might, haply, have deserved it; and her Beauty may one Day procure her a Servant, whose Sword, like that of the great Artaban, may win her a Sceptre; who, with a noble Confidence, told his Princess, when the Want of a Crown was objected to him, I wear