Mr. Mastin often came to see his sister; and behaved with such easy natural humanity and regard towards me, as would have dispelled suspicion, if any had been conceived: but none of the family harboured a thought to my disadvantage, tho’ I had not Mr. Mastin's command of countenance: but the effect his presence had on me was attributed to bashful gratitude, not to the shame of guilt; and my mistress sometimes seemed apprehensive that the obligations she imagined I and my family had to her brother, might have awakened rather too tender a sensibility in my heart: but this excited her compassion, and not her anger. The safety of my situation, and her great opinion of Mr. Mastin's honour and integrity, prevented her conceiving any fear of the consequences, which, with more opportunity, might arise from the prepossession she imagined I had in her brother's favour.

Mrs. Lafew's behaviour excited my gratitude and affection: but I confess I was still more sensibly affected both by my master's conduct and his perfections. Nature had endowed him with very uncommon charms; and they made a strong impression on my heart, which was till then a stranger to love; indeed so ignorant about it, that I knew not the nature of my sensations. I had not imagined a possibility of my being in love with him; and therefore supposed every one, who knew him as well as I did, must be equally attached to him. I found I loved my mistress more because she belonged to him, than for her own merits; and, charming as their children were, nothing endeared them so much to me, as the consideration that they were his. Every proof they gave of their affection to him was a new charm to me: but I did not receive the same pleasure from his fondness for them: I envied their title to his tenderness, and the great share they enjoyed of it; and could not forbear lamenting that I stood in none of those near and dear relations to him.