"Ay, happy, Lucy! That is the word. You must not be permitted to choose
a lot in life, in which the chances are not in favor of your happiness."
"I look not for that now, Ralph," was her reply, and with such hopeless
despondency visible in her face as she spoke, that, with a deeper
interest, taking her hand, he again urged the request she had already so
recently denied.
"And why not, my sweet sister? Why should you not anticipate happiness
as well as the rest of us? Who has a better right to happiness than the
young, the gentle, the beautiful, the good?--and you are all of these,
Lucy! You have the charms--the richer and more lasting charms--which, in
the reflective mind, must always awaken admiration! You have animation,
talent, various and active--sentiment, the growth of truth, propriety,
and a lofty aim--no flippancy, no weak vanity--and a gentle beauty, that
woos while it warms."
Her face became very grave, as she drew back from him.
"Nay, my sweet Lucy! why do you repulse me? I speak nothing but the
truth.
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