"
This was assailing Adelheid in a point where she was the weakest. One of
her generous temperament and self-denying habits could scarce entertain
the wish of exacting that from another which she was not willing to
undergo herself, and the hope that had just been reviving in her heart was
nearly extinguished by the discovery. Still she was so much in the habit
of feeling under the guidance of her excellent sense, and it was so
natural to cling to her just wishes, while there was a reasonable chance
of their being accomplished, that she did not despair.
"Thy sister and her future husband know her birth, and understand the
chances they run."
"She knows all this, and such is her generosity, that she is not disposed
to betray me in order to serve herself. But this self-denial forms an
additional obligation on my part to declare myself the wretch I am. I
cannot say that my sister is accustomed to regard our long-endured
fortunes with all the horror I feel, for she has been longer acquainted
with the facts, and the domestic habits of her sex have left her less
exposed to the encounter of the world's hatred, and perhaps she is partly
ignorant of all the odium we sustain.
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