o very
enormous vices to gratify; though I pretend not to the greatest purity,
neither, my girl. Sir, said I, if you can account to your own mind,
I shall always be easy in whatever you do. But our greatest happiness
here, sir, continued I, is of very short duration; and this life, at the
longest, is a poor transitory one; and I hope we shall be so happy as
to be enabled to look forward, with comfort, to another, where our
pleasures will be everlasting.

You say well, Pamela; and I shall, by degrees, be more habituated to
this way of thinking, as I more and more converse with you; but, at
present, you must not be over serious with me all at once: though
I charge you never forbear to mingle your sweet divinity in our
conversation, whenever it can be brought in a propos, and with such
a cheerfulness of temper, as shall not throw a gloomy cloud over our
innocent enjoyments.

I was abashed at this, and silent, fearing I had offended: But he said,
If you attend rightly to what I said, I need not tell you again, Pamela,
not to be discouraged from suggesting to me, on every proper occasion,
the pious impulses of your own amiable mind. Sir, said I, you will be
always indulgent, I make no doubt, to my imperfections, so long as I
mean well.

My master made me dine with him, and would eat nothing but what I helped
him to; and my heart is, every hour, more and more enlarged with his
goodness and condescension. But still, what ails me, I wonder! A strange
sort of weight hangs upon my mind, as Thursday draws on, which makes
me often sigh involuntarily, and damps, at times, the pleasures of my
delightful prospects!--I hope this is not ominous; but only the foolish
weakness of an over-thoughtful mind, on an occasion the most solemn and
important of one's life, next to the last scene, which shuts up all.

I could be very serious: But I will commit all my ways to that blessed
Providence, which hitherto has so wonderfully conducted me through real
evils to this hopeful situation.

I only fear, and surely I have great reason, that I shall be too
unworthy to hold the affections of so dear a gentleman!--God teach me
humility, and to know my own demerit! And this will be, next to his
grace, my surest guard, in the state of life to which, though most
unworthy, I am going to be exalted. And don't cease your prayers for
me, my dear parents; for, perhaps, this new condition may be subject
to still worse hazards than those I have escaped; as