s her glowing breast
to mine! I see her blush with virtuous pleasure and ingenuous love! She
smiles upon me with enchanting tenderness! O let me gaze on that
transcendent beauty, which, the more I view it, ravishes the more! These
charms are too intense; I sicken while I gaze! Merciful Heaven! is not
this a mere illusion of the brain? Was she not fled for ever? Had not
the cold hand of death divorced her from my hope? This must be some
flattering vision of my distempered fancy! perhaps some soothing dream--
If such it be, grant, O ye heavenly powers! that I may never wake."

"O gentle youth!" replied the beauteous orphan, still clasped in his
embrace, "what joy now fills the bosom of Monimia, at this triumph of thy
virtue and thy love? When I see these transports of thy affection, when
I find thee restored to that place in my esteem and admiration, which
thou hadst lost by the arts of calumny and malice--this is a meeting
which my most sanguine hopes durst not presage!"

So entirely were the faculties of Renaldo engrossed in the contemplation
of his restored Monimia, that he saw not the rest of the company, who
wept with transport over this affecting scene. He was therefore amazed
at the interposition of Madam Clement, who, while the shower of
sympathetic pleasure bedewed her cheeks, congratulated the lovers upon
this happy event, crying, "These are the joys which virtue calls her
own." They also received the compliments of a reverend clergyman, who
told Monimia, she had reaped, at last, the fruits of that pious
resignation to the will of Heaven, which she had so devoutly practised
during the term of her affliction. And, lastly, they were accosted by
the physician, who was not quite so hackneyed in the ways of death, or so
callous to the finer sensations of the soul, but that he blubbered
plentifully, wile he petitioned Heaven in behalf of such an accomplished
and deserving pair.

Monimia taking Madam Clement by the hand, "Whatever joy," said she,
"Renaldo derives from this occasion, is owing to the bounty, the
compassion, and maternal care of this incomparable lady, together with
the kind admonitions and humanity of those two worthy gentlemen."

Melvil, whose passions were still in agitation, and whose mind could not
yet digest the incidents that occurred, embraced them all by turns; but,
like the faithful needle, which, though shaken for an instant from its
poise, immediately regains its true direction,