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Page:The Vicar of Wakefield (Volume 2) - Goldsmith (1766, 1st edition).djvu/173

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The Vicar of Wakefield.
171

My daughter had not yet heard of her poor brother's melancholy situation, and we all seemed unwilling to damp her chearful­ness by the relation. But it was in vain that I attempted to appear chearful, the cir­cumstances of my unfortunate son broke through all efforts to dissemble; so that I I was at last obliged to damp our mirth by relating his misfortunes, and wishing that he might be permitted to share with us in this little interval of satisfaction. After my guests were recovered from the consterna­tion my account had produced, I requested also that Mr. Jenkinson, a fellow prisoner, might be admitted, and the gaoler granted my request with an air of unusual submis­sion. The clanking of my son's irons was no sooner heard along the passage, than his sister ran impatiently to meet him; while Mr. Burchell, in the mean time, asked me if my son's name were George, to which replying in the affirmative, he still continued silent. As soon as my boy entered theroom,