His feelings towards her at such moments were those which have been
since so beautifully expressed by our immortal Joanna Baillie:
Thou sweetest thing,
That e'er did fix its lightly-fibred sprays
To the rude rock, ah! wouldst thou cling to me?
Rough and storm-worn I am; yet love me as
Thou truly dost, I will love thee again
With true and honest heart, though all unmeet
To be the mate of such sweet gentleness.
Thus the very points in which they differed seemed, in some measure, to
ensure the continuance of their mutual affection. If, indeed, they had
so fully appreciated each other's character before the burst of passion
in which they hastily pledged their faith to each other, Lucy might have
feared Ravenswood too much ever to have loved him, and he might have
construed her softness and docile temper as imbecility, rendering her
unworthy of his regard. But they stood pledged to each other; and Lucy
only feared that her lover's pride might one day teach him to regret
his attachment; Ravenswood, that a mind so ductile as Lucy's might, in
absence or difficulties, be induced, by the entreaties or influence of
those around her, to renounce the engagement she had formed.
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