: For, though equally
sincere, I have a great deal to say, and to do, to compensate the
sufferings I have made you undergo; and, at last, must sit down
dissatisfied, because those will never be balanced by all I can do for
you.
He saw my dear father quite unable to support these affecting instances
of his goodness;--and he let go my hand, and took his; and said, seeing
his tears, I wonder not, my dear Pamela's father, that your honest heart
springs thus to your eyes, to see all her trials at an end. I will not
pretend to say, that I had formerly either power or will to act thus:
But since I began to resolve on the change you see, I have reaped so
much pleasure in it, that my own interest will keep me steady: For, till
within these few days, I knew not what it was to be happy.
Poor Mr. Williams, with tears of joy in his eyes, said, How happily,
sir, have you been touched by the divine grace, before you have been
hurried into the commission of sins, that the deepest penitence could
hardly have atoned for!--God has enabled you to stop short of the evil;
and you have nothing to do, but to rejoice in the good, which now
will be doubly so, because you can receive it without the least inward
reproach.
You do well, said he, to remind me, that I owe all this to the grace
of God. I bless Him for it; and I thank this good man for his excellent
lessons to his daughter; I thank her for following them: and I hope,
from her good example, and your friendship, Mr. Williams, in time, to
be half as good as my tutoress: and that, said he, I believe you'll own,
will make me, without disparagement to any man, the best fox-hunter in
England.--Mr. Williams was going to speak: and he said, You put on so
grave a look, Mr. Williams, that, I believe, what I have said, with you
practical good folks, is liable to exception: but I see we are become
quite grave; and we must not be too serious neither.
What a happy creature, my dear mother, is your Pamela!--O may my
thankful heart, and the good use I may be enabled to make of the
blessings before me, be a means to continue this delightful prospect to
a long date, for the sake of the dear good gentleman, who thus becomes
the happy instrument, in the hand of Providence, to bless all he smiles
upon! To be sure, I shall never enough acknowledge the value he is
pleased to express for my unworthiness, in that he has prevented my
wishes, and, unasked, sought the occasion of being reconciled to a good
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