The lady answered as follows:
I see you are a villain! and I despise you from my soul. If you come
here I shall not be at home.
Though Jones was well satisfied with his deliverance from a thraldom
which those who have ever experienced it will, I apprehend, allow to
be none of the lightest, he was not, however, perfectly easy in his
mind. There was in this scheme too much of fallacy to satisfy one
who utterly detested every species of falshood or dishonesty: nor
would he, indeed, have submitted to put it in practice, had he not
been involved in a distressful situation, where he was obliged to be
guilty of some dishonour, either to the one lady or the other; and
surely the reader will allow, that every good principle, as well as
love, pleaded strongly in favour of Sophia.
Nightingale highly exulted in the success of his stratagem, upon
which he received many thanks and much applause from his friend. He
answered, "Dear Tom, we have conferred very different obligations on
each other. To me you owe the regaining your liberty; to you I owe the
loss of mine. But if you are as happy in the one instance as I am in
the other, I promise you we are the two happiest fellows in England."
The two gentlemen were now summoned down to dinner, where Mrs.
Miller, who performed herself the office of cook, had exerted her best
talents to celebrate the wedding of her daughter. This joyful
circumstance she ascribed principally to the friendly behaviour of
Jones; her whole soul was fired with gratitude towards him, and all
her looks, words, and actions, were so busied in expressing it, that
her daughter, and even her new son-in-law, were very little objects of
her consideration.
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