"Pr'ythee, what is it?"
"Eliza Hadwin:—do you wish—could you bear—to see her the wife of another?"
"Five years hence I will answer you. Then my answer may be, 'No; I wish her only to be mine.' Till then, I wish her only to be my pupil, my ward, my sister."
"But these are remote considerations; they are bars to marriage, but not to love. Would it not molest and disquiet you to observe in her a passion for another?"
"It would, but only on her own account; not on mine. At a suitable age it is very likely I may love her, because it is likely, if she holds on in her present career, she will then be worthy; but at present, though I would die to insure her happiness, I have no wish to insure it by marriage with her."
"Is there no other whom you love?"
"No. There is one worthier than all others; one whom I wish the woman who shall be my wife to resemble in all things."
"And who is this model?"
"You know I can only mean Achsa Fielding."
"If you love her likeness, why not love herself?"