He cannot legally make you become his wife, but he has a right to claim you before God and man.

Have you considered that he has probably furnished his house in consequence of his intended marriage,--and perhaps in compliance with your own especial wishes?
[I think that Lady Macleod must have told the Countess something that she had heard about the garden.] Have you reflected that he has of course told all his friends?
Have you any reason to give?
I am told, none! Nothing should ever be done without a reason; much less such a thing as this in which your own interests and, I may say, respectability are involved.

I hope you will think of this before you persist in destroying your own happiness and perhaps that of a very worthy man.
I had heard, some years ago, when you were much younger, that you had become imprudently attached in another direction--with a gentleman with none of those qualities to recommend him which speak so highly for Mr Grey.
It would grieve me very much, as it would also the Marchioness, who in this matter thinks exactly as I do, if I were led to suppose that your rejection of Mr Grey had been caused by _any renewal of that project_.

Nothing, my dear Miss Vavasor, could be more unfortunate,--and I might almost add a stronger word.
I have been advised that a line from me as representing your poor mother's family, especially as I have at the present moment the opportunity of expressing Lady Auld Reekie's sentiments as well as my own, might be of service.

I implore you, my dear Miss Vavasor, to remember what you owe to God and man, and to carry out an engagement made by yourself, that is in all respects comme il faut, and which will give entire satisfaction to your friends and relatives.
MARGARET M.MIDLOTHIAN.
I think that Lady Macleod had been wrong in supposing that this could do any good.