misfortune that was
included in this event. To Mr. Falkland, the meeting between me and his
relation must appear not accidental, but, on my part at least, the
result of design. I was totally out of the road I had been travelling by
his direction; I was in a road that led directly to the house of Mr.
Forester. What must he think of this? How must he suppose I came to that
place? The truth, if told, that I came there without design, and purely
in consequence of having lost my way, must appear to be the most
palpable lie that ever was devised.

Here then I stood detected in the fact of that intercourse which had
been so severely forbidden. But in this instance it was infinitely worse
than in those which had already given so much disturbance to Mr.
Falkland. It was then frank and unconcealed; and therefore the
presumption was, that it was for purposes that required no concealment.
But the present interview, if concerted, was in the most emphatical
degree clandestine. Nor was it less perilous than it was clandestine: it
had been forbidden with the most dreadful menaces; and Mr. Falkland was
not ignorant how deep an impression those menaces had made upon my
imagination. Such a meeting therefore could not have been concerted
under such circumstances, for a trivial purpose, or for any purpose
that his heart did not ache to think of. Such was the amount of my
crime, such was the agony my appearance was calculated to inspire; and
it was reasonable to suppose that the penalty I had to expect would be
proportionable. The threats of Mr. Falkland still sounded in my ears,
and I was in a transport of terror.

The conduct of the same man in different circumstances, is often so
various as to render it very difficult to be accounted for. Mr.
Falkland, in this to him, terrible crisis, did not seem to be in any
degree hurried away by passion. For a moment he was dumb; his eyes
glared with astonishment; and the next moment, as it were, he had the
most perfect calmness and self-command. Had it been otherwise, I have no
doubt that I should instantly have entered into an explanation of the
manner in which I came there, the ingenuousness and consistency of which
could not but have been in some degree attended with a favourable event.
But, as it was, I suffered myself to be overcome; I yielded, as in a
former instance, to the discomfiting influence of surprise. I dared
scarcely breathe; I observed the appearances with equal anxiety and
surpri