ABSTRACT
a‘Mr Vivian, I trust that I am not deficient in maidenly modesty,’ said lady Julia, ‘when it is not incompatible with what I deem a higher virtue – sincerity. Now and ever, frankness is, and shall be, my only policy. The confidence I am about to repose in/you, sir, is the strongest proof of my esteem, and of the gratitude I feel for your attachment. – My heart is no longer in my power to bestow. It is – young as I am, I dare to pronounce the words – irrevocably fixed upon one who will do honour to my choice. 61 Your proposal was made to my father – Why was it not made to me? — Men – all men but one – treat women as puppets, and then wonder that they are not rational creatures! – Forgive me this too just reproach. But, as I was going to say, your proposal has thrown me into great difficulties – the greater because my father warmly approves of it. I have a strong affection for him; and, perhaps, a year or two ago, I should, in the ignorance in which I was dogmatically brought up, have thought it my duty to submit implicitly to parental authority, and to receive a husband from the hands of a father, without consulting either my own heart or my own judgment. But, since my mind has been more enlightened, and has opened to higher views of the dignity of my sex, and higher hopes of happiness, my ideas of duty have altered; and, I trust, I have sufficient courage to support my own idea of the rights of my sex, and my firm conviction of what is just and becoming.’
