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The Vicar of Wakefield.
127

­hill; it may, in some measure, induce him to pity you, and it will give me re­lief in dying."

"Never, child," replied I, "I never shall be brought to acknowledge my daughter a prostitute; for tho' the world may look upon your offence with scorn, let it be mine to regard it as a mark of credulity, not of guilt. My dear, I am no way mi­serable in this place, however dismal it may seem, and be assured that while you continue to bless me by living, he shall never have my consent to make you more wretched by marrying another."

After the departure of my daughter, my fellow prisoner, who was by at this inter­view, sensibly enough expostulated upon my obstinacy, in refusing a submission, which promised to give me freedom. He observ­ed, that the rest of my family was not to be sacrificed to the peace of one childalone,