joy till I sobbed again--and he raising me to his kind
arms, I said--"To have this _heavenly_ prospect, O best beloved of my
heart! added to all my _earthly_ blessings!--How shall I contain
my joy!--For, oh! to think that he is, and will be mine, and I his,
through the mercies of God, when this transitory life is past and
gone, to all eternity; what a rich thought is this!--Methinks I am
already, dear Sir, ceasing to be mortal, and beginning to taste the
perfections of those joys, which this thrice welcome declaration gives
me hope of hereafter!--But what shall I say, obliged as I was beyond
expression before, and now doubly obliged in the rapturous view you
have opened to me, into a happy futurity!"

He said, he was delighted with me beyond expression; that I was his
ecstatic charmer!--That the love I shewed for his future good was the
moving proof of the purity of my heart, and my affection for him. And
that very evening he joined with me in my retired duties; and, at all
proper opportunities, favours me with his company in the same manner;
listening attentively to all my lessons, as he calls my cheerful
discourses on serious subjects.

And now, my dear parents, do you not rejoice with me in this charming,
charming appearance? For, _before_ I had the most generous, the most
beneficent, the most noble, the most affectionate, but _now_ I am
likely to have the most _pious_, of husbands! What a happy wife, what
a happy daughter, is _his_ and _your_ Pamela! God of his infinite
mercy, continue and improve the ravishing prospect!

I was forced to leave off here, to enjoy the charming reflections,
which this lovely subject, and my blessed prospects, filled me with;
and now proceed to write a few lines more.

I am under some concern on account of our going to travel into
some Roman Catholic countries, for fear we should want the public
opportunities of divine service: for I presume, the ambassador's
chapel will be the only Protestant place of worship allowed of,
and Paris the only city in France where there is one. But we must
endeavour to make it up in our private and domestic duties: for, as
the phrase is--"When we are at Rome, we must do as they do at Rome;"
that is to say, so far as not to give offence, on the one hand, to the
people we are among; nor scandal, on the other, by compliances hurtful
to one's conscience. But my protector knows all these things so well
(no place in what is called the grand tour, being new