'
N. B. The father's letter was as follows:
'My DEAREST DAUGHTER,
'Our prayers are at length heard, and we are overwhelmed with joy. O
what sufferings, what trials, hast thou gone through! Blessed be the
Divine goodness, which has enabled thee to withstand so many temptations!
We have not yet had leisure to read through your long accounts of all
your hardships. I say long, because I wonder how you could find time and
opportunity for them: but otherwise they are the delight of our spare
hours; and we shall read them over and over, as long as we live, with
thankfulness to God, who has given us so virtuous and so discreet a
daughter. How happy is our lot in the midst of our poverty! O let none
ever think children a burden to them; when the poorest circumstances can
produce so much riches in a Pamela! Persist, my dear daughter, in the
same excellent course; and we shall not envy the highest estate, but defy
them to produce such a daughter as ours.
'I said, we had not read through all yours in course. We were too
impatient, and so turned to the end; where we find your virtue within
view of its reward, and your master's heart turned to see the folly of
his ways, and the injury he had intended to our dear child: For, to be
sure, my dear, he would have ruined you, if he could.
Pages:
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264