earance of Mr.
Thornhill's equipage at a distance alarmed us all, but particularly
increased the uneasiness of my eldest daughter, who, desirous of
shunning her betrayer, returned to the house with her sister. In a few
minutes he was alighted from his chariot, and making up to the place
where I was still sitting, inquired after my health with his usual air
of familiarity. "Sir," replied I, "your present assurance only serves to
aggravate the baseness of your character; and there was a time when I
would have chastised your insolence for presuming thus to appear before
me. But now you are safe; for age has cooled my passions, and my calling
restrains me."

"I vow, my dear sir," returned he, "I am amazed at all this, nor can I
understand what it means. I hope you don't think your daughter's late
excursion with me had anything criminal in it."

"Go," cried I; "thou art a wretch, a poor pitiful wretch, and every way
a liar; but your meanness secures you from my anger. Yet, sir, I am
descended from a family that would not have borne this! And so, thou
vile thing! to gratify a momentary passion, thou hast made one poor
creature wretched for life, and polluted a family that had nothing but
honor for their portion."

"If she or you," returned he, "are resolved to be miserable, I cannot
help it. But you may still be happy; and whatever opinion you may have
formed of me, you shall ever find me ready to contribute to it. We can
marry her to another in a short time, and what is more, she may keep
her lover beside; for I protest I shall ever continue to have a true
regard for her."

I found all my passions alarmed at this new degrading proposal; for
although the mind may often be calm under great injuries, little
villainy can at any time get within the soul and sting it into rage.
"Avoid my sight, thou reptile," cried I, "nor continue to insult me with
thy presence. Were my brave son at home he would not suffer this; but I
am old and disabled, and every way undone."

"I find," cried he, "you are bent upon obliging me to talk in a harsher
manner than I intended. But as I have shown you what may be hoped from
my friendship, it may not be improper to represent what may be the
consequences of my resentment. My attorney, to whom your late bond has
been transferred, threatens hard; nor do I know how to prevent the
course of justice except by paying the money myself, which, as I have
been at some expenses lately previous to my intende