 presence gives you no degree of pleasure? I flattered myself your tranquillity would have been wholly restored on finding yourself under that of the most tender, the most faithful of lovers.
Ah! my Lord, do me the justice to believe I am deeply sensible of the infinite obligations I am under to you. I should be the most ungrateful of creatures, were I not; but can it surprise you, that I should impatiently wish to relieve my friends from the distress this unfortunate affair must have involved them in? Surely it ought not; complete then your kind intentions, convey me, as soon as possible, to my Aunt; and depend upon it you shall have no cause to

accuse me of indifference; till then, I can think of nothing but the joy I shall experience in removing all her trouble and anxious suspense, which you are sensible must have been greater than I can express.
I now ordered the carriage to drive on, and in the mean time did all in my power to calm her perturbation; and, as she had not a doubt of my sincerity, by the time we reached the inn, at which we were to rest that night, she was tolerably composed; more so, indeed, Charles, every thing considered, than I could possibly have expected.
To say truth, her behaviour surprised me a good deal, and I could only account for it, by supposing she consoled herself with the idea, that I was unacquainted with the whole adventure, and that by marrying her immediately, all would be set to rights. This conjecture did not serve to raise her in my esteem; in her situation, it was certainly natural to form such a wish; but it set her delicacy in no very favourable point of view.
I expected to have found her overwhelmed with sorry, covered with confusion

—In short, I conceived it utterly impossible, the amiable, the modest! blushing Emily! could, after what had passed, so soon regain any degree of tranquillity; I had figured her to myself a prey to despair, and so far from desiring to meet the eyes of her family, that she would rather have wished to bury herself for ever from the sight of any human being, than appear before them.
Such was the notion, Charles, I had foolishly formed of her sentiments; her ideas of virtue:—it is pretty plain, I had over-rated them, or, as I said before, she put a constraint upon herself, in order the better to deceive me—neither the one nor other of these opinions gave me much satisfaction.
Yet
