Without looking on any of the rest, he broke the
seal, and read, astounded by the contents, "that having for some time
been led to consider the probable consequences to him, both from his
father's better judgment and the ultimate opinion of the world,
should he and she continue their pertinacious adherence to their
childish attachment, she had tried to wean both him and herself from
so rebellious a folly towards her revered guardian, his honored
father; and trusting that the gradual shortening of her cousin-like
messages to him, through his brother's letters, must have had the
effect intended, she now had permission to write one herself to him,
to convince him at once of the unreasonableness and danger of all
such premature entanglements. For," she added, "soon after his
departure, a journey to town had taught her to know her own heart.
She learned to feel that it was still at her disposal; and time did
not long pass after she returned to the country before, having
compared the object of her awakened taste with that of her former
delusion, she persuaded her own better judgment to set a generous
example to her ever-dear cousin Robert, by marrying where that
judgment now pointed. And so, with the full consent of Sir Fulke (who
she well knew had been totally averse to her marriage with his
youngest son), she had yielded to the long love of his brother, which
had been struggling in his manly bosom many agonizing months against
his persistent fidelity to Robert, but whose sister she hoped to
shortly become, as his affectionate Edith--then Somerset.
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