Well, said he, you need not be afraid to tell me: I must love her after
all; though I shall not be pleased with her on this occasion. I know
it is her love for me, though thus oddly expressed, that makes her so
uneasy: and, after all, she comes, I'm sure, to be reconciled to me;
though it must be through a good hearty quarrel first: for she can shew
a good deal of sunshine; but it must be always after a storm; and I'll
love her dearly, if she has not been, and will not be, too hard upon my
dearest. Mr. Peters said, Sir, you are very good, and very kind; I love to see
this complaisance to your sister, though she be in fault, so long as you
can shew it with so much justice to the sweetest innocence and merit
in the world. By all that's good, Mr. Peters, said he, I'd present my
sister with a thousand pounds, if she would kindly take my dear Pamela
by the hand, and wish her joy, and call her sister!--And yet I should be
unworthy of the dear creature that smiles upon me there, if it was not
principally for her sake, and the pleasure it would give her, that I say
this: for I will never be thoroughly reconciled to my sister till she
does; for I most sincerely think, as to myself, that my dear wife, there
she sits, does me more honour in her new relation, than she receives
from me. Sir, said I, I am overwhelmed with your goodness!--And my eyes were
filled with tears of joy and gratitude: and all the company with one
voice blessed him. And Lady Jones was pleased to say, The behaviour of
you two happy ones, to each other, is the most edifying I ever knew. I
am always improved when I see you. How happy would every good lady be
with such a gentleman, and every good gentleman with such a lady!--In
short, you seem made for one another.
O madam, said I, you are so kind, so good to me, that I know not how to
thank you enough!--Said she, You deserve more than I can express; for,
to all that know your story, you are a matchless person. You are an
ornament to our sex and your virtue, though Mr. B---- is so generous
as he is, has met with no more than its due reward. God long bless you
together! You are, said my dearest sir, very good to me, madam, I am sure. I have
taken liberties in my former life, that deserved not so much excellence.
I have offended extremely, by trials glorious to my Pamela, but
disgraceful to me, against a virtue that I now consider as almost
sacred; and I shall not think I deserve her, till I can bring my
manners, my sentiments, and my actions, to a conformity with her own.
In short, my Pamela, continued he, I want you to be nothing but what you
are, and have been. You cannot be better; and if you could, it would
be but filling me with despair to attain the awful heights of virtue at
which you have arrived. Perhaps, added the dear gentleman, the scene
I have beheld within these twelve hours, has made me more serious than
otherwise I should have been: but I'll assure you, before all this good
company, I speak the sentiments of my heart, and those not of this day
only. What a happy daughter is yours, O my dear father and mother! I owe it
all to God's grace, and to yours and my good lady's instructions: And to
these let me always look back with grateful acknowledgments, that I may
not impute to myself, and be proud, my inexpressible happiness.