ABSTRACT
I found Miss Woodford in the deepest affliction: the sacrifice she had made, and the consciousness of what her parent would suffer, preyed upon her sensible mind, and almost reduced it to insanity. She conjured me to reflect on the misery to which I had exposed her; and to decide quickly on the plan of my future intentions. I knew not how to meliorate her fate: I ought to have married her; but there was mercy in refusing; for while she had a claim upon my gratitude, while her sorrows awakened the tenderness of pity, she was sure of my attentions; but had I once made her an honourable recompence, our mutual misery would have been the inevitable consequence; with all the hideous train of reproach, indifference, repentance, and disgust.
