'Sir,' replied I, 'your present assurance only serves to aggravate the baseness of your character; and there was a time when I would have chastised your insolence, for presuming thus to appear before me.

But now you are safe; for age has cooled my passions, and my calling restrains them.' 'I vow, my dear sir,' returned he, 'I am amazed at all this; nor can I understand what it means! I hope you don't think your daughter's late excursion with me had any thing criminal in it.' 'Go,' cried I, 'thou art a wretch, a poor pitiful wretch, and every way a lyar; but your meanness secures you from my anger! Yet sir, I am descended from a family that would not have borne this! And so, thou vile thing, to gratify a momentary passion, thou hast made one poor creature wretched for life, and polluted a family that had nothing but honour for their portion.' 'If she or you,' returned he, 'are resolved to be miserable, I cannot help it.

But you may still be happy; and whatever opinion you may have formed of me, you shall ever find me ready to contribute to it.

We can marry her to another in a short time, and what is more, she may keep her lover beside; for I protest I shall ever continue to have a true regard for her.' I found all my passions alarmed at this new degrading proposal; for though the mind may often be calm under great injuries, little villainy can at any time get within the soul, and sting it into rage.--'Avoid my sight, thou reptile,' cried I, 'nor continue to insult me with thy presence.

Were my brave son at home, he would not suffer this; but I am old, and disabled, and every way undone.' 'I find,' cried he, 'you are bent upon obliging me to talk in an harsher manner than I intended.