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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2022
Her Answer, dutifully expostulating on the Case.
Honoured Sir,
I am sensible of the Obligations which both Nature and Gratitude lay me under to obey your Commands; and am willing to do so at all Events, if what I have to offer be not thought sufficient to excuse my Compliance.
Mr. Rowe is, I believe, possessed of all the Merit you ascribe to him. But be not displeased, dear Sir, when I say, that he seems not so proper an Husband for me, as for a Woman of more Years and Experience.
His advanced Years, give me leave to say, will be far from being agreeable to me; and will notmy Youth, or at least the Effects of it, in some Particulars, be distasteful to him? Will not that innocent Levity, which is almost inseparable from my Time of Life, appear to him in a more despisable Light, than perhaps it deserves? For, Sir, is not a Likeness of Years attended with a Likeness of Manners, a Likeness of Humours, an Agreement in Diversions and Pleasures, and Thinking too? And can such Likenesses, such Agreements, be naturally expected, where the Years on one Side double the Number of the other? Besides, Sir, is not this Defect, if I may so call it, a Defect that will be far from mending by Time?
Your great Goodness, and the Tenderness I have always experienc’d from you, have embolden’d me to speak thus freely upon a Concern that is of the highest Importance to my future Welfare, which I know you have in View from more solid Motives than I am capable of entertaining. And if you still insist upon my Obedience, I will only take the Liberty to observe, that if I do marry Mr. Rowe, it will be intirely the Effect of my Duty to the best of Fathers, and not of an Affection for a Gentleman that I respect in every other Light but that you propose him in. And dear, good Sir, consider then, what Misunderstandings and evil Consequences may possibly arise from hence, and render unhappy the future Life of
Your most dutiful Daughter.
I am greatly obliged to you, Sir, that you refused, without consulting me, the three strange Overtures you mention.
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