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Emily's emotion would not suffer her to reply; and Valancourt, who now

ventured to look up, observing her countenance change, expected to see

her faint, and made an involuntary effort to support her, which recalled

Emily to a sense of her situation, and to an exertion of her spirits

Valancourt did not appear to notice her indisposition, but, when he

spoke again, his voice told the tenderest love 'I will not presuer upon your attention at this time,

but Iht be allowed to hope the

declaration I have made would not exclude me from your presence in

future' Emily hts,

and to speak She feared to trust the preference her heart acknowledged

towards Valancourt, and to give hieh in this narrow period she had observed

much that was adh these

observations had been sanctioned by the opinion of her father, they were

not sufficient testieneral worth to determine her upon a

subject so infinitely important to her future happiness as that, which

now solicited her attention Yet, though the thought of dis

Valancourt was so very painful to her, that she could scarcely endure to

pause upon it, the consciousness of this e that suit, for which

her own heart too tenderly pleaded The family of Valancourt, if not

his circumstances, had been known to her father, and known to be

unexceptionable