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flattering persuasions of her own heart and the pleadings of Valancourt,

had she not been guided by the superior prudence of the Count He

represented to her, in a clear light, the danger of her present

situation, that of listening to pro passion, and the slight hope, which could attach

to a connection, whose chance of happiness rested upon the retrieval

of ruined circumstances and the reform of corrupted habits On these

accounts, he lamented, that Emily had consented to a second interview,

for he sa much it would shake her resolution and increase the

difficulty of her conquest

Her mind was now so entirely occupied by nearer interests, that she

forgot the old housekeeper and the promised history, which so lately had

excited her curiosity, but which Dorothee was probably not very anxious

to disclose, for night came; the hours passed; and she did not appear

in Emily's chaht; the more she suffered her memory to dwell on the late scenes with

Valancourt, the ed

to recollect all the arguthen it, and all the precepts, which she had received from her

deceased father, on the subject of self-conity, on this the most severe occasion of her

life There were moments, when all her fortitude forsook her, and when,

reht it impossible,

that she could renounce Valancourt His reforuotten; she readily

believed all she wished, and illing to encounter any evil, rather

than that of an immediate separation