love and
veneration for his sister, asked pardon for having given offence, and,
kissing the drops from her fair eyes, begged she would, for his sake,
listen to the declaration of his friend.

Thus solicited, she could not refuse to hear the letter, which, when he
had repeated, she lamented her own fate in being the occasion of so much
uneasiness, desired her brother to assure Mr. Pickle that she was not
a voluntary enemy to his peace; on the contrary, she wished him all
happiness, though she hoped he would not blame her for consulting her
own, in avoiding any future explanation or connection with a person
whose correspondence she found herself under a necessity to renounce. In
vain did the new-married couple exhaust their eloquence in attempting
to prove, that the reparation which our hero had offered was adequate to
the injury she had sustained: that in reconciling herself to a penitent
lover, who subscribed to her own terms of submission, her honour would
be acquitted by the most scrupulous and severe judges of decorum;
and that her inflexibility would be justly ascribed to the pride
and insensibility of her heart. She turned a deaf ear to all their
arguments, exhortations, and entreaties, and threatened to leave the
house immediately, if they would not promise to drop that subject of
discourse.

Godfrey, very much chagrined at the bad success of his endeavours,
returned to his friend, and made as favourable a report of the affair,
as the nature of his conversation with Emilia would permit; but as he
could not avoid mentioning her resolution in the close, Peregrine was
obliged to drink again the bitter draught of disappointment, which put
his passions into such a state of agitation, as produced a short ecstasy
of despair, in which he acted a thousand extravagances. This paroxysm,
however, soon subsided into a settled reserve of gloomy resentment,
which he in secret indulged, detaching himself, as soon as possible,
from the company of the soldier, on pretence of retiring to rest.

While he lay ruminating upon the circumstances of his present situation,
his friend Pipes, who knew the cause of his anxiety, and firmly believed
that Emilia loved his master at her heart, howsoever she might attempt
to disguise her sentiments; I say, Thomas was taken with a conceit
which he thought would set everything to rights, and therefore put it in
execution without further delay. Laying aside his hat, he ran directly
to the house o