The reader will at once infer, I was in love. But he will be
mistaken. I was not in love; though my imagination, to use a cant
phrase of some of the sects, was greatly exercised. Lucy, even then,
had a hold of my _heart_ in a way of which I was ignorant myself;
but it was not in nature for a youth, just approaching his majority,
to pass months and months, almost alone, in the society of a lovely
girl who was a year or two his junior, and not admit some degree of
tenderness towards her in big feelings. The circumstances were
sufficient to try the constancy of the most faithful swain that ever
lived. Then, it must be remembered that I had never professed love to
Lucy--was not at all aware that she entertained any other sentiment
towards me than that she entertained towards Rupert; whereas Emily--
but I will not prove myself a coxcomb on paper, whatever I might have
been, at the moment, in my own imagination.
Next day, at the appointed hour, I had the happiness to receive my old
passengers. It struck me that Talcott was as much gratified as I was
myself; for he, too, had both pleasure and improvement in Emily
Morton's society. It has often been said that the English East-India
ships are noted for quarrelling and making love. The quarrels may be
accounted for on the same principle as the love-making, viz.
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