But
this I tell my dear love, continued he, and again clasped me to him,
there is not a tittle in it that I cannot joyfully subscribe to: And
that, my dear Pamela, should make you easy, and join cheerfully in it
with me. I kissed his dear hand: O my generous, kind protector, said I,
how gracious is it to confirm thus the doubting mind of your poor
servant! which apprehends nothing so much as her own unworthiness of the
honour and blessing that await her!--He was pleased to say, I know well,
my dearest creature, that, according to the liberties we people of
fortune generally give ourselves, I have promised a great deal, when I
say so. But I would not have said it, if, deliberately, I could not with
all my heart. So banish from your mind all doubt and uneasiness; let a
generous confidence in me take place; and let me see it does, by your
cheerfulness in this day's solemn business; and then I will love you for
ever!
May God Almighty, sir, said I, reward all your goodness to me!--That is
all I can say. But, oh! how kind it is in you, to supply the want of the
presence and comfortings of a dear mother, of a loving sister, or of the
kind companions of my own sex, which most maidens have, to soothe their
anxieties on the so near approach of so awful a solemnity!--You, sir, are
all these tender relations in one to me! Your condescensions and
kindness shall, if possible, embolden me to look up to you without that
sweet terror, that must confound poor bashful maidens, on such an
occasion, when they are surrendered up to a more doubtful happiness, and
to half-strange men, whose good faith, and good usage of them, must be
less experienced, and is all involved in the dark bosom of futurity, and
only to be proved by the event.
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