Page:Maria, or, The wanderer reclaim'd.pdf/8

Rh is no excuſe for disobedience and that ſuch diſobedience very rarely eſcapes without puniſhment?

In a word, I went off with Mr. G*** and left in evil hour the houſe of my parents. He conveyed me to a lodging prepared for me in town, where I was kept up and concealed with all imaginable ſecreſy, in the utmoſt dread of diſcovery. My lover behaved with the greateſt tenderneſs and regard. And we talked of nothing but the deſired moment, when marriage ſhould make us one: but how were all my joys damped, when he told me, on the ſecond morning after my coming to town, that he was under the moſt perplexing uneaſiness: ſince by means of the execrable new marriage act, it was impoſſible for us to get married! my heart was almoſt broken, and I had then the firſt presages of my future ſorrow. However he aſſuaged my grief, by unutterable fondneſs and the moſt ſincerely ſeeming attachment, and promiſed to uſe every effort to accompliſh the deſired end; ſwearing with the energy of falſhood, that life without the enjoyment of me would not be worth having.— A week paſſed on in this dire ſuſpence; and what added to my uneaſineſs, was the ſight of advertisements in the papers from my diſconsolate friends,— an heart-breaking mother, and an anxious father,— who earneſtly intreated either my return, or some information concerning me. Filial love, I