But what am
I saying?--Where am I going?--Am I that Delia that bad defiance to the art
of men,--that saw with indifference the havock that my charms had made!
With every opening morn I smiled. Each hour was sped with joy, and my
heart was light and frolic. And shall I dwindle into a pensive, melancholy
maid, the sacrifice of one that heeds me not, whose sighs no answering
sighs encounter!--let it not be said. I have hitherto asserted the
independence of my sex, I will continue to do so. Too amiable unknown, I
give thee to the winds! Propitious fate, I thank thee that thou hast so
soon discovered how much my partiality was misplaced. I will abjure it
before it be too late. I will tear the little intruder from my heart
before the mischief is become irretrievable."
The following evening Delia repaired again by a kind of irresistible
impulse to the grove. She asked not the company of her friend. She dared
alone hazard the encounter of that object, at which she had trembled so
much the preceding day. Unknown to herself she still imaged a kind of
uncertainty in her fate which would not permit her to lay aside all
thought of Damon. She determined at all events, to have her doubts
resolved. "When there is no longer," said she to herself, "any room for
mistake, I shall then know what to do."
As she drew near the alcove, she perceived the same figure stretched along
the bank, and with his eyes immoveably fixed upon a little fountain that
rose in a corner of the scene.
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