"And how can heart meet heart," replied Charlotte, "on a three weeks' acquaintance? My heart would require a much longer time for disposing of itself, if I could disengage it from the ties that bind it here; and I cannot imagine how people should be either so vain, or so confiding as to fancy that the foundation of happiness, for perhaps a long life, can be laid in a short moment of time."
Russell assured her that to the quick eye of a lover, moments were years in bringing people acquainted.
"Ah then," said Charlotte, "why are so many married people unhappy?"
"They are just as well off in the end," answered Russell, "as those who are single, and certainly, till they discover their mistakes, much happier."
"Well, my life," replied Charlotte, "is too happy for any change of my own making, I believe. If heaven deprived me of all that I love, it is another question, but to deprive myself, I cannot. My idea of marriage is not so favourable as yours. I think it would require the most powerful affection to render it a relation of real felicity; and if not that, I should think it much worse than even an unfortunate lot in single life."
"Have I then no ground of hope," said Russell.
"Indeed, I feel wholly disinclined to marry any mortal at present," answered Charlotte. "To you I am scarcely at all known; and I believe that you are entirely mistaken in supposing for an instant that we are suited to each other. You and I have been educated in very different schools, and could never sympathize."
"Do you then forget our musical sympathies. Am I not devoted to your sweet melodies, and have we not often admired them in unison?"
"Oh yes, certainly," said Charlotte, "but music is a very little part of life.—We must not stay any longer from our party, who, perhaps, are wondering at our absence." Fanny appeared precisely as Charlotte spoke the last word, and the latter, seizing her sister's arm, was delighted to find excuse for terminating the conversation.
The last evening is always sad, when those who have been pleased in each other's society are to part; but there is generally also some degree of bustle, immediately preceding a journey, which prevents the mind from dwelling on gloomy thoughts, at least in common cases; and as all were ignorant of what had happened, except the pair immediately concerned, there was less reserve than might have been anticipated by any one who knew the fact that a proposal had been made and rejected.