Many a young couple of spendthrifts get through their
capital of passion in the first twelve months, and have no love left for
the daily demands of after life. O me! for the day when the bank account
is closed, and the cupboard is empty, and the firm of Damon and Phyllis
insolvent!
Miss Newcome, we say, without doubt, did not make her calculations in
this debtor and creditor fashion; it was only the gentlemen of that
family who went to Lombard Street. But suppose she thought that regard,
and esteem, and, affection being sufficient, she could joyfully, and with
almost all her heart bring such a portion to Lord Kew; that her harshness
towards him as contrasted with his own generosity, and above all with his
present pain, infinitely touched her; and suppose she fancied that there
was another person in the world to whom, did fates permit, she could
offer not esteem, affection, pity only, but something ten thousand times
more precious? We are not in the young lady's secrets, but if she has
some as she sits by her father's chair and bed, who day or night will
have no other attendant; and, as she busies herself to interpret his
wants, silently moves on his errands, administers his potions, and
watches his sleep, thinks of Clive absent and unhappy, of Kew wounded and
in danger, she must have subject enough of thought and pain.
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