_Sylvia_ had no sooner read this with blushes, and a thousand fears, and trembling of what was to follow in _Philander_’. letters both to _Octavio_ and to herself, but with an indignation agreeable to her haughty soul, she cried--’How--slighted! And must _Octavio_ see it too! By heaven, if I should find it true, he shall not dare to think it.’ Then with a generous rage she broke open _Philander_’., letter; and which she soon perceived did but too well prove the truth of _Octavio_’. suspicion, and her own fears. She repeated it again and again, and still she found more cause of grief and anger; love occasioned the first, and pride the last; and, to a soul perfectly haughty, as was that of _Sylvia_, it was hard to guess which had the ascendant: she considered _Octavio_ to all the advantages that thought could conceive in one, who was not a lover of him; she knew he merited a heart, though she had none to give him; she found him charming without having a tenderness for him; she found him young and amorous without desire towards him; she found him great, rich, powerful and generous without designing on him; and though she knew her soul free from all passion, but that for _Philander_, nevertheless she blushed and was angry, that he had thoughts no more advantageous to the power of those charms, which she wish’d might appear to him above her sex, it being natural to women to desire conquests, though they hate the conquered; to glory in the triumph, though they despise the slave: and she believed, while _Octavio_ had so poor a sense of her beauty as to believe it could be forsaken, he would adore it less: and first, to satisfy her pride, she left the softer business of her heart to the next tormenting hour, and sent him this careless answer by his page, believing, if she valued his opinion; and therefore dissembled her thoughts, as women in those cases ever do, who when most angry seem the most galliard, especially when they have need of the friendship of those they flatter. SYLVIA _to_ OCTAVIO.