Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/135

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
DUTY AND INCLINATION.
127

been acquainted with half the cause I have for repentance, he would have feared entrusting me with his beloved child!

"But I will proceed, in a more regular train, to inform you of the particulars respecting my marriage. The day after Mr. Basil had unburthened his mind in the explanation he made me, no less satisfactory to him than to myself, I wrote him a few lines, intimating that it was my wish to leave the country for a few weeks, but that beyond that period nothing could tempt me to prolong my absence; that I should count every minute lost until I revisited the Parsonage: for the present, I conceived motives of delicacy prevented me from so doing. To my short note I received, half an hour after, a very long letter from your dear and excellent friend; it is too much to transcribe, or you should have had it. The contents spoke at once to my soul; the sentiments were endearing, tender, kind, the language eloquent and persuasive; the aspirations of the saint breathed in every line. I resolved to peruse it daily, that my spirit might extract some portion of its charity; and that it might teach me not to waste in vain repinings the moments that separated me from the objects I loved.

"I have no doubt you will approve, as did her