Would it not have been natural
too, that he should have asked me, engaged as we stand to each other, to
have united our faith before his quitting Europe, when I might either
have remained here with my father, or accompanied him to India, in quest
of that fortune which he is so eagerly pushing for? It would have been
wrong--very wrong--in me to have consented to such a proposal, unless my
father had authorised it; but surely it would have been natural that
Richard should have offered it? Alas! men do not know how to love like
women! Their attachment is only one of a thousand other passions and
predilections,--they are daily engaged in pleasures which blunt their
feelings, and in business which distracts them. We--we sit at home to
weep, and to think how coldly our affections are repaid!"
The time was now arrived at which Richard Middlemas had a right to
demand the property vested in the hands of the Town-clerk and Doctor
Gray. He did so, and received it accordingly. His late guardian
naturally enquired what views he had formed in entering on life? The
imagination, of the ambitious aspirant saw in this simple question a
desire, on the part of the worthy man, to offer, and perhaps press upon
him, the same proposal which he had made to Hartley. He hastened,
therefore, to answer dryly, that he had some hopes held out to him which
he was not at liberty to communicate; but that the instant he reached
London, he would write to the guardian of his youth, and acquaint him
with the nature of his prospects, which he was happy to say were rather
of a pleasing character.
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