Page:Tragical history of Crazy Jane, and young Henry.pdf/12

 of a joyous bride, surrounded by approving friends she was a miserable dependent on the honour of a man, of whose veracity she had of late strong and painful doubts. In the course of the evening, Jane found an opportunity of conversing, unobserved, with Henry, and reposing her griefs in his bosom. How powerful is the language of persuasion from the lips of those we love! The youth called heaven to witness, that she was more dear to him than his own life; and that he would sooner suffer the most agonizing tortures that invention could devise or cruelly inflict, than allow the idol of his heart to become the theme of babbling tongues. In short, Jane soon felt a conviction, that she had wronged her lover by her suspicions of his faith, and was eager to obtain his pardon for an offence that she blamed herself for committing against their mutual love. Ere they returned to that company, Jane reminded Henry, that she thought of the alliance that had taken place in their two families, would remove the bar of their own union: as she could not suppose Mr Percival would raise any objections to it, after he had so readily contented to join the hands of Lubin and Rosetta.

Master, as Henry was, of dissimulation, yet this reasonable suggestion of the fair victim of his deceit staggered him; he was (what rarely occurred to him) at a loss for an answer. At length he stammered forth a few sentences, almost incoherent from his agitation, that he