Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/214

 other; to this may be imputed Valentine's melancholy, and this was the foundation of all the passions you have seen Camilla in, which she feigned to be owing to her grief for using her ill; for on their oaths and solemn promises of amendment, I assured them you should know nothing of it. I don't know whether I am excusable for so doing, but I had so great a dread of disturbing your peace of mind, that I could not prevail with myself to act otherwise, and was in hopes to have preserved your quiet, and by this lenity have saved your children from ruin. I have watched them all I could' (thus she artfully gave a reason for all her actions), 'and it was on my speaking to Camilla yesterday, because I observed she still continued to contrive methods of being alone with Valentine, she fell into that passion in which you found her. This, if they will come before you, I will affirm to their faces, and I think they cannot even dare to deny it.' "Perhaps, sir, you will wonder how Livia could venture to go so far as this, in a thing she knew to be utterly false; but, if we consider it seriously, she hazarded nothing by it; on the contrary, this pretended openness was the strongest confirmation of the truth of what she asserted. She knew very well there could be no more than our bare words against hers; and that, before a judge as partial to her as her husband, there was no danger but she should be believed. My father now saw everything made clear before him, the reason of all our discontents was no longer a secret; he was amazed at our wickedness, and said, he was sorry he had been the cause of such creatures coming into the world; that he would never see us more; then concluded with a compliment to Livia on her great goodness, and wondered how it was possible anything could be so bad as to abuse such softness and good-nature. On which Livia replied, she did not value our behaviour,