CHARLOTTE
Why did they not then marry?
LETITIA
Upon the death of his father, Billy went to England
to see the world and rub off a little of the patroon
rust. During his absence, Maria, like a good girl, to
keep herself constant to her nown true-love, avoided
company, and betook herself, for her amusement, to
her books, and her dear Billy's letters. But, alas!
how many ways has the mischievous demon of incon-
stancy of stealing into a woman's heart! Her love was
destroyed by the very means she took to support it.
CHARLOTTE
How?--Oh! I have it--some likely young beau
found the way to her study.
LETITIA
Be patient, Charlotte; your head so runs upon
beaux. Why, she read Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa
Harlow, Shenstone, and the Sentimental Journey; and
between whiles, as I said, Billy's letters. But, as her
taste improved, her love declined. The contrast was
so striking betwixt the good sense of her books and
the flimsiness of her love-letters, that she discovered
she had unthinkingly engaged her hand without her
heart; and then the whole transaction, managed by
the old folks, now appeared so unsentimental, and
looked so like bargaining for a bale of goods, that she
found she ought to have rejected, according to every
rule of romance, even the man of her choice, if im-
posed upon her in that manner.
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