They entrusted her honour to her own keeping. They were convinced, that
the spotless dictates of conscious innocence, and that divinity that
dwells in virtue and awes the shaggy satyr into mute admiration, were
her sufficient defence. They left to her the direction of her conduct.
The shepherdess, unsuspicious by nature, and untaught to view mankind
with a wary and a jealous eye, was a stranger to severity and caprice.
She was all gentleness and humanity. The sweetness of her temper led her
to regard with an eye of candour, and her benevolence to gratify all the
innocent wishes, of those about her. The character of a woman
undistinguishing in her favours, and whose darling employment is to
increase the number of her admirers, is in the highest degree unnatural.
Such was not the character of Imogen. She was artless and sincere. Her
tongue evermore expressed the sentiments of her heart. She drew the
attention of no swain from a rival; she employed no stratagems to
inveigle the affections; she mocked not the respect of the simple
shepherd with delusive encouragement. No man charged her with broken
vows; no man could justly accuse her of being cruel and unkind.
It may therefore readily be supposed, that the subject of love rather
glided into the conversation of Edwin and Imogen, than was regularly and
designedly introduced.
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