for London. And why do you think I say for my comfort? Only that I shall then soon have the opportunity to assure you personally, as you give me hope, how much I am, my dear Miss Darnford,

Your truly affectionate

P. B.

I will show you, when I see you, the conversation you require about the young ladies.

LETTER XLII.

Mrs. B to Miss Darnford.

MY DEAR MISS DARNFORD,-One more letter, and I have done for a great while; because I hope your presence will put an end to the occasion. I shall now tell you of my second visit to the dairy-house, where we went to breakfast, in the chariot and four, because of the distance, which is ten pretty long miles.

I transcribed for you, from letters written formerly to my dear parents, an account* of my former dairy-house visit, and what the people were, and whom I saw there; and although I besought you to keep that affair to yourself, as too much affecting the reputation of my Mr. Bto be known any farther, and even to destroy that account when you had perused it; yet, I make no doubt, you remember the story, and so I need not repeat any part of it.

When we arrived there, we found at the door, expecting us (for they heard the chariot wheels at a distance), my pretty Miss Goodwin, and two other misses, who had earned their ride, attended by the governess's daughter, a discreet young gentlewoman. As soon as I stepped out, See vol. ii. p. 131.

the child ran into my arms with great eagerness, and I as tenderly embraced her, and leading her into the parlour, asked her abundance of questions about her work and her lessons; and among the rest, if she had merited this distinction of the chaise and dairy-house breakfast, or if it was owing to her uncle's favour, and to that of her governess? The young gentlewoman assured me it was to both, and showed me her needle-works and penmanship; and the child was highly pleased with my commendations.

I took a good deal of notice of the other two misses, for their school-fellow's sake, and made each of them a present of some little toys; and my miss, of a number of pretty trinkets, with which she was highly delighted; and I told her that I would wait upon her governess, when I came from London into the country again, and see in what order she kept her little matters; for, above all things, I loved pretty housewifely misses; and then I would bring her

more.

Mr. B observed, with no small satisfaction, the child's behaviour, which is very pretty; and appeared as fond of her, as if he had been more than her uncle, and yet seemed under some restraint, lest it should be taken that he was more. Such power has secret guilt, poor gentleman! to lessen and restrain a pleasure that would, in a happier light, have been so laudable to have manifested! But how commendable is this his love to the dear child, compared to that of most wicked libertines, who have no delight but in destroying innocence; and care not what becomes of the unhappy infants, or of the still more unhappy mothers!

I am going to let you into a charming scene, resulting from this perplexity of the dear gentleman. A scene that has afforded me high delight ever since; and always will, when I think of it: but I will lead to it as gradually as it happened.

The child was very fond of her uncle, and told him, she loved him dearly, and always would love and honour him, for giving her such a good aunt.-You talked, madam, said

she, when I saw you before, that I should come and live with you will you let me, madam? Indeed I will be very good, and do everything you bid me, and mind my book and my needle; indeed I will.

Ask your uncle, my dear, said I; I should like your pretty company of all things.

She went to Mr. B, and said, Shall I, sir, go and live with my aunt? Pray let me, when you come from London again.

You have a very good governess, child, said he; and she cannot part with you.

Yes, but she can, sir; she has a great many misses, and can spare me well enough: and if you please to let me ride in your coach sometimes, I can go and visit my governess, and beg a holiday for the misses, now and then, when I am almost a woman, and then all the misses will love

me.

Don't the misses love you now, Miss Goodwin? said he. Yes, they love me well enough, for matter of that; but they will love me better when I can beg them a holiday. Do, dear sir, let me go home to my new aunt, next time you come into the country.

I was much pleased with the dear child's earnestness; and permitted her to have her full argument with her beloved uncle, but was much moved; and he himself was under some concern, when she said-But you should, in pity, let me live with you, sir; for I have no papa, nor mamma, neither they are so far off!-But I will love you both as if you were my own papa and mamma: so, dear now, my good uncle, promise the poor girl that has never a papa nor

mamma!

I withdrew to the door: It will rain, I believe, said I, and looked up. And indeed I had almost a shower in my eye; and had I kept my place, could not have refrained showing how much I was affected.

Mr. B—, as I said, was a little moved; but for fear the young gentlewoman should take notice of it, How, my dear, said he, no papa nor mamma!-Did they not send you a

Have you

pretty black boy to wait upon you, a while ago? Have forgot that?-That is true, replied she: but what is the black boy, to living with my new aunt?-That is better a great deal than a black boy!

Well, your aunt and I will consider of it, when we come from London. Be a good girl, meantime, and do as your governess would have you, and then you don't know what we may do for you. Well then, Miss Bett, said she to her young governess, let me be set two tasks instead of one, and I will learn all I can to deserve to go to my aunt.

In this manner the little prattler diverted herself. And as we returned from them, the scene I hinted at, opened as follows:

Mr. B was pleased to say, What a poor figure does the proudest man make, my dear Pamela, under the sense of a concealed guilt, in company of the innocent who know it, and even of those who do not!-Since the casual expression of a baby shall overwhelm him with shame, and make him unable to look up without confusion. I blushed for myself, continued he, to see how you were affected for me, and yet withdrew, to avoid reproaching me so much as with a look. Surely, Pamela, I must then make a most contemptible appearance in your eye! Did you not disdain me at that moment?

Dearest sir! how can you speak such a word? A word I cannot repeat after you! For, at that very time, I beheld you with the more reverence, for seeing your noble heart touched with a sense of your error; and it was such an earnest to me of the happiest change I could ever wish for, and in so young a gentleman, that it was one half joy for that, and the other half concern at the little charmer's accidental plea, to her best and nearest friend, for coming home to her new aunt, that affected me so sensibly as you

saw.

You must not talk to me of the child's coming home, after this visit, Pamela; for how, at this rate, shall I stand the reproaches of my own mind, when I see the little prater every day before me, and think of what her poor mamma

has suffered on my account! It is enough, that in you, my dear, I have an hourly reproach before me, for my attempts on your virtue; and I have nothing to boast of, but that I gave way to the triumphs of your innocence: And what then is my boast?

What is your boast, dearest sir? You have everything to boast, that is worthy of being boasted of:-Brought up to an affluent fortune, uncontrolled in your will, your passions uncurbed; you have, nevertheless, permitted the divine grace to operate upon your truly noble heart, and have seen your error at a time of life when others are rushing into vices; in the midst of which perhaps they are cut off.

You act generously, and with a laudable affection, to a deserving baby, which some would have left friendless to the wide world, and have made more miserable perhaps than they had made the very miserable mother and you have the comfort to think, that, through God's goodness, this mother is not unhappy; and that there is not a lost soul, any more than a lost body, to lay to your charge.

You have inspirited, by your generous example, and enabled, by your splendid fortune, another person, whom you have made the happiest creature in the world, to do good to the poor and destitute all around her; besides making every one who approaches you, easy and happy, with the bounty of your own hands.

You are the best of husbands, the best of landlords, the best of masters, the best of friends; and with all these excellences, and a mind, as I hope, continually improving, and more and more affected with the sense of its past mistakes, will you ask, dear sir, what is your boast?

Oh, my dearest, dear Mr. B! and then I pressed his hand with my lips, whatever you are to yourself, when you give way to reflections so hopeful, you are the glory and the boast of your grateful Pamela! And permit me to add, tears standing in my eyes, and holding his hand between mine, that I never beheld you in my life in a more amiable light, than when I saw that noble consciousness, which you