 day experience in the discovery of her exaltation and innocence; besides that I proposed to soften their anxiety by dictating a letter, which Fanny actually wrote to her mother, acquainting her that for reasons she was not at liberty to reveal, she was forced to conceal herself for a season from them and the world, but that a period would certainly arrive when she should again embrace them; adding many assurances that when she should have that happiness,

it would be without a blush for her past conduct, which ever had been, and ever should continue to be, conformable to the principles and instructions she had early imbibed from them. Fanny likewise promised to give them intelligence of her welfare from time to time, if they would have the goodness still to interest themselves in their child's happiness, while appearances were so unfavourable to her. This method, together with an annual sum, which I promised to remit to them without a possibility of their tracing from whence it came, made my Fanny tolerably easy; or rather the softness of her nature conspiring with her tenderness, overcame her scruples, and she listened to a plan she knew not how to improve.
Business at this time called my brother and sister to visit an estate lately left him in Scotland by a distant relation. I immediately proposed being of the party,

pretending an inclination to visit that part of the island, conscious that I could there compleat my scheme with the most security from suspicion.
We accordingly set off; and on our arrival at Edinburgh, Fanny, who was innocence herself, allowed me to conduct her to a private part of the town, where a clergyman, whom I had engaged to secrecy both by bribes and the most solemn oaths, performed the ceremony which united her to me by laws both human and divine.
I will confess to you, my children, humiliating as is the avowal, that the confidence placed in me more than once tempted me to betray it; and that the facility with which it was in my power to have deluded my artless bride with a false marriage, held the execution of my project for some time suspended: but though the whole transaction confessed

an unpardonable weakness, in this instance it was unstained with guilt.
Our journey down gave me opportunities of meeting with Fanny, and conversing with her more unsuspectedly than I could otherwise have hoped for; yet I could perceive that my sister was not without her suspicions of my partiality for her maid, and very often rallied me on it, though she could not possibly have conceived the slightest idea of the imprudence into which my fatal weakness had involved
