Letter XVI


_To the same_

O my lost child! In thy humiliations at this moment I can sympathize.
The shame that must follow the detection of it is more within my thoughts
at present than the negligence or infatuation that occasioned thy
faults.

I know all. Thy intended husband knew it all. It was from him that the
horrible tidings of thy unfaithfulness to marriage-vows first came.

He visited this city on purpose to obtain an interview with me. He
entered my apartment with every mark of distress. He knew well the effect
of such tidings on my heart. Most eagerly would I have laid down my life
to preserve thy purity spotless.

He demeaned himself as one who loved thee with a rational affection,
and who, however deeply he deplored the loss of thy love, accounted thy
defection from virtue of infinitely greater moment.

I was willing to discredit even his assertion. Far better it was that
the husband should prove the defamer of his wife, than that my darling
child should prove a profligate. But he left me no room to doubt, by
showing me a letter.