With which I fell to tears, and could say nothing to him at all. He strove to pacify me all he could, but began at last to be very pressing upon me to tell what it was. At last I answered that I thought I ought to tell him too, and that he had some right to know it; besides, that I wanted his direction in the case, for I was in such perplexity that I knew not what course to take, and then I related the whole affair to him. I told him how imprudently his brother had managed himself, in making himself so public; for that if he had kept it a secret, as such a thing out to have been, I could but have denied him positively, without giving any reason for it, and he would in time have ceased his solicitations; but that he had the vanity, first, to depend upon it that I would not deny him, and then had taken the freedom to tell his resolution of having me to the whole house.
Là-dessus j'éclatai en larmes, et ne pus rien lui dire du tout; il s'efforça de m'apaiser de son mieux, mais commença enfin de me presser très fort de lui dire ce qu'il y avait; enfin, je répondis que je croyais de mon devoir de le lui dire, et qu'il avait quelque droit de le savoir, outre que j'avais besoin de son conseil, car j'étais dans un tel embarras que je ne savais comment faire, et alors je lui racontai toute l'affaire: je lui dis avec quelle imprudence s'était conduit son frère, en rendant la chose si publique, car s'il l'avait gardée secrète j'aurais pu le refuser avec fermeté sans en donner aucune raison, et, avec le temps, il aurait cessé ses sollicitations; mais qu'il avait eu la vanité, d'abord de se persuader que je ne le refuserais pas, et qu'il avait pris la liberté, ensuite, de parler de son dessein à la maison entière.