ABSTRACT
Our young pair thought themselves fortunate, that Tickle’s regiment, though sent to Philadelphia, was not to embark for Europe till the spring. The Captain’s happiness was complete; but Maria 44 then first felt the anxiety of self-disapprobation, and a conscious impropriety / in her conduct. Her native candour was sullied, and her internal complacency wounded by the idea of subterfuge and dissimulation. Public amusements never much attracted her mind; and the former frank and happy intercourse with her father became studied and displeasing, by the necessity of artifice. She had determined, at any risk, to open the secret to Mr. Lumeire, who was expected from his journey to Carolina, and thus to her venerable parent, notwithstanding the remonstrances of her husband. But an unexpected circumstance rendered it unnecessary. The Captain was at Philadelphia, preparing for his departure, and Matilda was setting off for Berkeley Hall, when the postman left a letter for Tickle: she meant to have immediately inclosed it to him; but thought her situation, and their confidence, justified her opening it, as it might contain some intelligence respecting his father. It was from his intimate / friend Somerville, and was as follows:
Boston, April 10th.
‘Dear Will,
