[The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith]@TWC D-Link book
The Vicar of Wakefield

CHAPTER 31
15/21

For when we reflect on the various schemes this gentleman has laid to seduce innocence, perhaps some one more artful than the rest has been found able to deceive him.

When we consider what numbers he has ruined, how many parents now feel with anguish the infamy and the contamination which he has brought into their families, it would not surprise me if some one of them--Amazement! Do I see my lost daughter! Do I hold her! It is, it is my life, my happiness.
I thought thee lost, my Olivia, yet still I hold thee--and still thou shalt live to bless me.'-- The warmest transports of the fondest lover were not greater than mine when I saw him introduce my child, and held my daughter in my arms, whose silence only spoke her raptures.

'And art thou returned to me, my darling,' cried I, 'to be my comfort in age!'-- 'That she is,' cried Jenkinson, 'and make much of her, for she is your own honourable child, and as honest a woman as any in the whole room, let the other be who she will.

And as for you 'Squire, as sure as you stand there this young lady is your lawful wedded wife.

And to convince you that I speak nothing but truth, here is the licence by which you were married together.'-- So saying, he put the licence into the Baronet's hands, who read it, and found it perfect in every respect.
'And now, gentlemen,' continued he, I find you are surprised at all this; but a few words will explain the difficulty.


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