Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded

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.