nder then that I should be struck with a religion which I
hoped would free me from the discipline of moral rectitude, and yet
deliver me from the punishment of having neglected it. Will God accept
my present forced submission? Will he accept a penitence of which I may
have no time to prove the sincerity? Tell me--you are a Christian."

I was much distressed. I thought it neither modest nor prudent for me to
give a decisive answer. He grasped my hand. "Then," said he, "you think
my case hopeless. You think the Almighty can not forgive me?" Thus
pressed, I ventured to say, "To doubt his will to pardon, and his power
to save, would, as it appears to me, sir, be a greater fault than any
you have committed."

"One great comfort is left," replied he, "the mercy I have abused is
infinite. Tell Stanley I now believe with him, that if we pretend to
trust in God, we must be governed by him, if we truly believe in him, we
shall obey him; if we think he sent his Son to save sinners, we shall
hate sin."

I ventured to congratulate him on his frame of mind; and seeing him
quite overcome, took leave of him with a heart deeply touched with this
salutary scene. The family at the Grove were greatly moved with my
description, and with the method poor Tyrrel had found out of eluding
the refusal of his liberal-minded executors to accept of legacies.

The day fixed for my departure too soon arrived. I took a most
affectionate leave of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, and a very tender one of
Lucilla, who gratified my affection by the emotion she evidently felt,
and my delicacy by the effort she made to conceal it. Ph[oe]be wept
outright. The children all hung about me, each presenting me some of her
flowers, saying they had nothing else to give me; and assuring me that
Rachel should be no loser by it. Little Celia was clamorous in her
sorrow, when she saw me ascend the curricle, in which neither she nor
Lucilla was to have a place. I took the sweet child up into the
carriage, placed her by me, and gently drove her through the park, at
the gate of which I consigned her to the arms of her father, who had
good-naturedly walked by the side of the carriage in order to carry her
back. I drove off, enriched with his prayers and blessings, which seemed
to insure me protection.

Though this separation from all I loved threw a transient sadness around
me, I had abundant matter for delightful reflection and pious gratitude.
I experienced the truth of Ph[oe]b