Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 2.djvu/168

 find them amply detailed in this paper," at the same time putting into my hand a letter from my father to Mr. Somerville.

In a moment the mystery was unravelled, and conviction flashed in my face like the priming of a musquet. Guilty, and convicted on the clearest evidence, I had nothing left for it, but to throw myself on her mercy; but while I stood undecided, and unknowing what to do, Mr. Somerville entered, and welcomed me with kind, but cool hospitality. Seeing Emily in tears, and my father's letter in her hand, he knew that an éclaircissement had taken place, or was i progress. In this situation, candour, and an honest confession that I felt a mawvaise honte in disclosing my passion to my father, would undoubtedly have been my safest course; but my right trusty friend, the devil, stepped in to my assistance, and suggested deceit, or a continuation of that chain by which he had long' since bound me, and not one link of which he took care