He showed it me on condition of my being everlastingly silent to you in
regard to its contents. He yielded to a jealousy which would not be
conquered, and had gotten this letter by surreptitious means. He was
ashamed of an action which his judgment condemned as ignoble and
deceitful.

Far more wise and considerate was this excellent and injured man than
I. He was afraid, by disclosing to you the knowledge he had thus gained,
of rendering you desperate and hardened. As long as reputation was not
gone, he thought your errors were retrievable. He distrusted the success
of his own efforts, and besought me to be your guardian. As to himself, he
resigned the hope of ever gaining your love, and entreated me to exert
myself for dissolving your connection with Colden, merely for your own
sake.

To show me the necessity of my exertions, he had communicated this
letter, believing that my maternal interest in your happiness would
prevent me from making any but a salutary use of it. Yet he had not put
your safety into my hands without a surety. He was so fully persuaded of
the ill consequences of your knowing how much was known, that he had given
me the proofs of your guilt only on my solemn promise to conceal them from
you.

I saw the generosity and force of his representations, and, while I
endeavoured by the most earnest remonstrances to break your union with
Colden, I suffered no particle of the truth to escape me. But you were
hard as a rock. You would not forbid his visits, nor reject his
letters.