'I will be heard seriously,' said Hargrave, colouring with anger, 'and seriously too I must be answered.'
'Nay,' said Laura, 'if you look so tremendous I shall retreat without hearing you at all.'
Hargrave, who instantly saw that he had not chosen the right road to victory, checked his rising choler--'Laura,' said he, 'you have yourself made me the victim of a passion ungovernable--irresistible; and it is cruel--it is ungenerous in you to sport with my uneasiness.'
'Do not give the poor passion such hard names,' said Laura, smiling. 'Perhaps you have never tried to resist or govern it.'
'As soon might I govern the wind,' cried Hargrave, vehemently,--'as soon resist the fires of Heaven. And why attempt to govern it?'
'Because,' answered Laura, 'it is weak, it is sinful, to submit unresisting to the bondage of an imperious passion.'
'Would that you too would submit unresisting to its bondage!' said Hargrave, delighted to have made her once more serious. 'But if this passion is sinful,' continued he, 'my reformation rests with you alone. Put a period to my lingering trial. Consent to be mine, and hush all these tumults to rest.'
'Take care how you furnish me with arguments against yourself,' returned Laura, laughing. 'Would it be my interest, think you, to lull all these transports to such profound repose?'
'Be serious Laura, I implore you. Well do you know that my love can end only with my existence, but I should no longer be distracted with these tumultuous hopes and fears if--' 'Oh,' cried Laura, interrupting him, 'hope is too pleasing a companion for you to wish to part with that; and,' added she, a smile and a blush contending upon her cheek, 'I begin to believe that your fears are not very troublesome.' 'Ah Laura,' said Hargrave sorrowfully, 'you know not what you say. There are moments when I feel as if you were already lost to me--and the bare thought is distraction. Oh if you have pity for real suffering,' continued he, dropping on his knees, 'save me from the dread of losing you; forget the hour of madness in which I offended you. Restore to me the time when you owned that I was dear to you. Be yet more generous, and give me immediate, unalienable right to your love.'