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 mean to judge uncharitably, every one of us being but frail, I shall let it all pass by. So hold up your head, and take comfort, my girl, and don't be shy of your old uncle; for whatever may have slipt from him in a moment of choler, he'll protect you, God willing, to his last hour; and never come out with another unkind word upon what is past and gone."

The heart of Juliet was too full to let her offer any immediate vindication: she could but pronounce, "My uncle, when I can be explicit,—you will not—I hope, and trust,—have cause to blush for me!"—

"Why then you are a very good girl!" cried he, well pleased, "an excellent girl, in the main, I make small doubt." He then demanded, though not, he protested, to find fault with what was past; what had brought her over to her native land in such a ragged, mauled, and black condition; which had prevented the least guess of who she was; "for if, when I saw you off the coast,"