Waverley, that you should feel a present momentary
disappointment than the long and heart-sickening griefs which attend a
rash and ill-assorted marriage!'
'Good God!' exclaimed Waverley, 'why should you anticipate such
consequences from a union where birth is equal, where fortune is
favourable, where, if I may venture to say so, the tastes are similar,
where you allege no preference for another, where you even express a
favourable opinion of him whom you reject?'
'Mr. Waverley, I HAVE that favourable opinion,' answered Flora; 'and so
strongly that, though I would rather have been silent on the grounds of
my resolution, you shall command them, if you exact such a mark of my
esteem and confidence.'
She sat down upon a fragment of rock, and Waverley, placing himself near
her, anxiously pressed for the explanation she offered.
'I dare hardly,' she said, 'tell you the situation of my feelings, they
are so different from those usually ascribed to young women at my period
of life; and I dare hardly touch upon what I conjecture to be the nature
of yours, lest I should give offence where I would willingly administer
consolation. For myself, from my infancy till this day I have had but one
wish--the restoration of my royal benefactors to their rightful throne.
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