by the abbess, who maintained the only true felicities of life were religion and friendship.  ’What then do you make of love, madam?’ cried he briskly:  ’love, the first command of Heaven, and the support of this great universe:—­love, which gives a relish to every other joy, and’—­he was going on, but the abbess interrupted him, ‘Hold!—­Hold!’ said she, ’this is not a discourse fit for these sacred precincts.’—­But these words were uttered in a sound, and accompanied with a look, which wholly took away their austerity, and it was easy for Natura to perceive by the manner in which they were spoke, as well as by a sigh, which escaped Elgidia at the same time, that neither of these ladies were in reality enemies to the passion he was defending.

Some little time after dinner was over, Natura was about to take his leave; but the abbess told him, that she had formed a design to punish him for pretending to espouse the cause of love; ‘and that is,’ said she, ’by detaining you in a place, where you must never speak, nor hear a word, in favour of it’:—­’we have,’ continued she, ’a little apartment adjoining to the monastery, tho’ not in it, which serves to accommodate such friends as visit us, and are too far from home to return the same day:—­you must not refuse to pass at least one night in it; and I dare promise you, that you will not find yourself worse lodged, than the preceding one:—­your servant may also lie in the same house, and I will send your horses to a neighbouring farmer; who will take care of them.’

The manner in which this request was urged, had somewhat in it too obliging, for Natura to have denied, in good manners, even if his inclinations had been opposite; but indeed he was too much charmed with the conversation of the lovely abbess, and her fair associates, to be desirous of quitting it.—­He not only stayed that night, but also, on their continuing to ask it, many succeeding ones.—­He lay in the apartment above-mentioned, breakfasted, dined, and supped in the convent, as if a pensioner in the place, always in the same company, and ambitious of no other.

The gallantries with which he treated the abbess, were as tender as innocence would permit; nor did he presume to harbour any views of being happier with her than he was at present.

But see! the strange caprice of love!  It was not through a coldness of constitution, nor any confederations of her quality and function, which rendered him so content with enjoying no more of her than her conversation; nor that hindered him from taking advantage of many advances she made him, whenever they were alone, of becoming more particular; but it was the progress Elgidia every day made in his esteem:—­the more he saw that beautiful young lady, the more he thought her charming; and every time she spoke discovered to him a new fund of wit, and sweetness of disposition:—­it was not in her power to erase the first impression her sister had made on him, but it was to stop the admiration he had for her from growing up into a passion:—­whenever he saw either of them alone, he thought her most amiable he was with; and when they were together, he was divided between both.