Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/305

 possessed; so that her manners and conversation were such as fitted her for any company to which I might be inclined to introduce her. I informed my mother and sisters that I was on the point of contracting a union with this young woman, and having made them personally acquainted, the three young ladies soon became very intimate. As my mother and sisters but rarely called at my lodgings, and then merely en passant, I had no difficulty in concealing the connexion from them until I could with propriety declare my marriage to have taken place. We had the happiness of finding ourselves mutually pleased with each other, and I considered my meeting with so amiable a friend as one of the greatest blessings of my life. In a few weeks after our junction, my partner discovered evident symptoms of pregnancy, which with her affectionate behaviour, and real attachment to my interest, endeared her still more to me. In a word, I now felt myself as happy as any man daily risking his liberty and life, and exposed to the reproaches of his own conscience, could possibly be.