Indeed but it is, Lady Bella, interrupted he; for if I knew how to please you, I would never, if I could help it, offend. Therefore, I beg you, tell me how I have disobliged you; for, certainly, you have treated me as harshly as if I had been guilty of some very terrible offence.
You had the boldness, said she, to talk to me of love; and you well know that persons of my sex and quality are not permitted to listen to such discourses; and if, for that offence, I banished you my presence, I did no more than decency required of me; and which I would yet do, were I mistress of my own actions.
But is it possible, cousin, said Glanville, that you can be angry with any one for loving you? Is that a crime of so high a nature as to merit an eternal banishment from your presence?
Without telling you, said Arabella, blushing, whether I am angry at being loved, it is sufficient you know, that I will not pardon the man who shall have the presumption to tell me he loves me.
But, madam, interrupted Glanville, if the person who tells you he loves you, be of a rank not beneath you, I conceive you are not at all injured by the favourable sentiments he feels for you; and, though you are not disposed to make any returns to his passion, yet you are certainly obliged to him for his good opinion.
Since love is not voluntary, replied Arabella, I am not obliged to any person for loving me; for, questionless, if he could help it, he would.
If it is not a voluntary favour, interrupted Glanville, it is not a voluntary offence; and if you do not think yourself obliged by the one, neither are you at liberty to be offended with the other.
The question, said Arabella, is not whether I ought to be offended at being loved, but whether it is not an offence to be told I am so.
If there is nothing criminal in the passion itself, madam, resumed Glanville, certainly there can be no crime in declaring it.
However specious your arguments may appear, interrupted Arabella, I am persuaded it is an unpardonable crime to tell a lady you love her; and though I had nothing else to plead, yet the authority of custom is sufficient to prove it.