ough the consequence must have been, if she had,
that she would have been the wife of the odious Solmes? If now she be
brought to consent to be mine, seest thou not that the reconciliation
with her detested relations is the inducement, as it always was, and not
love of me?--Neither her virtue nor her love can be established but upon
full trial; the last trial--but if her resistance and resentment be such
as hitherto I have reason to expect they will be, and if I find in that
resentment less of hatred of me than of the fact, then shall she be mine
in her own way. Then, hateful as is the life of shackles to me, will I
marry her.

Well, Sir, I can only say, that I am dough in your hands, to be moulded
into what shape you please. But if, as I said before--

None of thy Said-before's, Patrick. I remember all thou sadist--and I
know all thou canst farther say--thou art only, Pontius Pilate like,
washing thine own hands, (don't I know thee?) that thou mayest have
something to silence thy conscience with by loading me. But we have gone
too far to recede. Are not all our engines in readiness? Dry up thy
sorrowful eyes. Let unconcern and heart's ease once more take possession
of thy solemn features. Thou hast hitherto performed extremely well.--
Shame not thy past by thy future behaviour; and a rich reward awaits
thee. If thou art dough be dough; and I slapt him on the shoulder--
Resume but thy former shape, and I'll be answerable for the event.

He bowed assent and compliance; went to the glass; and began to untwist
and unsadden his features; pulled his wig right, as if that, as well as
his head and heart had been discomposed by his compunction, and once more
became old Lucifer's and mine.

But didst thou think, Jack, that there was so much--What-shall-I-call-it?
--in this Tomlinson? Didst thou imagine that such a fellow as that had
bowels? That nature, so long dead and buried in him, as to all humane
effects, should thus revive and exert itself?--Yet why do I ask this
question of thee, who, to my equal surprise, hast shown, on the same
occasion, the like compassionate sensibilities?

As to Tomlinson, it looks as if poverty had made him the wicked fellow he
is; as plenty and wantonness have made us what we are. Necessity, after
all, is the test of principle. But what is there in this dull word, or
thing, called HONESTY, that even I, who cannot in my present views be
served by it, cannot help thinking even the a