Her mind, disposition, opinions, and habits
wanted no half-concealment, no self-deception on the present,
no reliance on future improvement. Even in the midst
of his late infatuation, he had acknowledged Fanny's
mental superiority. What must be his sense of it now,
therefore? She was of course only too good for him;
but as nobody minds having what is too good for them,
he was very steadily earnest in the pursuit of the blessing,
and it was not possible that encouragement from her should
be long wanting. Timid, anxious, doubting as she was,
it was still impossible that such tenderness as hers
should not, at times, hold out the strongest hope of success,
though it remained for a later period to tell him the whole
delightful and astonishing truth. His happiness in knowing
himself to have been so long the beloved of such a heart,
must have been great enough to warrant any strength of
language in which he could clothe it to her or to himself;
it must have been a delightful happiness. But there
was happiness elsewhere which no description can reach.
Let no one presume to give the feelings of a young woman
on receiving the assurance of that affection of which
she has scarcely allowed herself to entertain a hope.
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