We parted amicably.  She promised to return soon and prepare for a compliance with my wishes.  I cannot refuse to believe her.  I cannot cease to love her.  My heart is in her possession.  She has a perfect command of my passions.  Persuasion dwells on her tongue.  With all the boasted fortitude and resolution of our sex, we are but mere machines.  Let love once pervade our breasts, and its object may mould us into any form that pleases her fancy, or even caprice.

I have just received a letter from Eliza, informing me of her return to Hartford.  To-morrow I shall set out on a visit to the dear girl; for, my friend, notwithstanding all her foibles, she is very dear to me.  Before you hear from me again I expect that the happy day will be fixed—­the day which shall unite in the-most sacred bands this lovely maid and your faithful friend,

J. BOYER.

LETTER XL.

TO MR. T. SELBY.

HAMPSHIRE.

I have returned; and the day, indeed, is fixed; but O, how different from my fond expectations!  It is not the day of union, but the day of final separation; the day which divides me from my charmer; the day which breaks asunder the bands of love; the day on which my reason assumes its empire, and triumphs over the arts of a finished coquette.  Congratulate me, my friend, that I have thus overcome my feelings, and repelled the infatuating wiles of a deceitful girl.  I would not be understood to impeach Miss Wharton’s virtue; I mean her chastity.  Virtue, in the common acceptation of the term, as applied to the sex, is confined to that particular, you know.  But in my view, this is of little importance where all other virtues are wanting.

When I arrived at Mrs. Wharton’s, and inquired for Eliza, I was told that she had rode out, but was soon expected home.  An hour after, a phaeton stopped at the door, from which my fair one alighted, and was handed into the house by Major Sanford, who immediately took leave.  I met her, and offered my hand, which she received with apparent tenderness.

When the family had retired after supper, and left us to talk on our particular affairs, I found the same indecision, the same loathness to bring our courtship to a period, as formerly.  Her previous excuses were renewed, and her wishes to have a union still longer delayed were zealously urged.  She could not bear the idea of confinement to the cares of a married life at present, and begged me to defer all solicitation on that subject to some future day.  I found my temper rise, and told her plainly that I was not thus to be trifled with; that if her regard for me was sincere, if she really intended to form a connection with me, she could not thus protract the time, try my patience, and prefer every other pleasure to the rational interchange of affection, to the calm delights of domestic life.  But in vain did I argue against her false notions of happiness,