Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/197

 good-humour. The being reconciled was so great a heaven to him, he condemned himself for having offended such a charming creature, and was in raptures at her great goodness in forgiving him; would ask a thousand pardons, and be amazed at her condescension in granting them. His fondness was greater than before; for all violent passions, put a stop to but for a moment, increase on their return, as rivers flow faster after any interruption in their course. People who really love, will grant anything in the moment of reconcilation. My father would then think what he should do, to return all this softness and tenderness; and ten to one but he hit on the very thing which had been the cause of all her ill-humour; he would then intreat her to oblige him so much as to do what he knew she had most a mind to; which, after objections enough to shew him the obligations he owed her for complying, she consented to. Thus every thing fell into the right channel again; my father was the happiest man in the world, and had nothing to vex him but the enmity he was made believe his children had to him. "Poor Valentine and I walked about the house forlorn and neglected; what I felt, (and I dare assert the same of him, at the alteration in our father's behaviour) I shall not attempt to describe, as I am very certain no words can express it so strongly as your own imagination will suggest it to you. But Livia was not yet contented, although we were made miserable: we were not utterly abandoned, although she had contrived to give my father an ill opinion of us; nay, unless she could even prevail on him to turn us out of doors, which, unless she could make us appear guilty of some monstrous villainy, she despaired of effecting. "As the bringing us into absolute disgrace with my father was her greatest grief, so she constantly