she has alluded. Every feeling was
magnified and distorted, till you must have fancied--had not the real
cause been told--that some very serious evil had happened, or was
impending over her. I did not in the least doubt but that you would have
used all your influence to combat with and conquer this sinful repining;
but still I thought your very replies might have called forth renewed
ebullitions of sensibility, and thus in the frame of mind which she was
then indulging, your hinted reproaches, however gentle, might have been
turned and twisted into a decay of friendship or some such display of
sensitiveness, which would certainly have removed your affection and
injured herself. When, therefore, she so frankly acknowledged her error,
and offered to sacrifice the pleasure I knew it was to write to you, I
accepted it, spite of the pain which I saw she felt, and which to
inflict on her, you may believe gave her, and now I certainly feel
rewarded for all the self-denial we both practised, Emmeline is again
the same happy girl she was at Oakwood, although I can perceive there is
nothing, or at best but very little here, that can compensate for the
rural pleasures she has left. I do not wonder at this, for in such
feelings I trace those which, from my girlhood, were my own. I hope,
therefore, my dear young friend, that nothing in future will check your
intercourse with Emmeline, but that your correspondence may long
continue a source of pleasure to both of you. I love to see the perfect
confidence with which Emmeline has written, it proves she regards you as
you deserve to be regarded, as indeed her friend, not her companion in
frivolity and sentiment; and believe me, you may thus have it in your
power to improve and strengthen her perhaps rather too yielding
character. The manner in which, through the mercy of our compassionate
God, you have been enabled, young as you are, to bear your trials, which
are indeed severe, has inspired her with a respect for your character,
which the trifling difference in your ages might otherwise have
prevented, and therefore your letters will be received with more than
ordinary interest, and your good example, my dear girl, may do much
towards teaching her to bear those evils of life from which we cannot
expect her to be exempt, with the same patient resignation that
characterises you. Write to her therefore, as often as you feel
inclined, and do not, I beg, suppress the thoughts her candid lette