I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family! Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck, and bowing me to the ground. Alas! to me the idea of an immediate union with my cousin was one of horror and dismay. I revolved rapidly in my mind a multitude of thoughts, and endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion. I listened to my father in silence, and remained for some time incapable of offering any reply. Interpret my words with candour, and answer me, I conjure you, with confidence and sincerity.” Do not suppose, however, that I wish to dictate happiness to you, or that a delay on your part would cause me any serious uneasiness. You are younger yet I do not suppose, possessed as you are of a competent fortune, that an early marriage would at all interfere with any future plans of honour and utility that you may have formed. We have been unfortunate, and recent events have drawn us from that every-day tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities. Tell me, therefore, whether you object to an immediate solemnization of the marriage. But it is this gloom, which appears to have taken so strong a hold of your mind, that I wish to dissipate. If you feel thus, we shall assuredly be happy, however present events may cast a gloom over us. “The expression of your sentiments on this subject, my dear Victor, gives me more pleasure than I have for some time experienced. My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union.” I never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection. Nay, you may have met with another whom you may love and, considering yourself as bound in honour to your cousin, this struggle may occasion the poignant misery which you appear to feel.” You, perhaps, regard her as your sister, without any wish that she might become your wife. But so blind is the experience of man, that what I conceived to be the best assistants to my plan may have entirely destroyed it. You were attached to each other from your earliest infancy you studied together, and appeared, in dispositions and tastes, entirely suited to one another. “I confess, my son, that I have always looked forward to your marriage with your cousin as the tie of our domestic comfort, and the stay of my declining years. I trembled violently at this exordium, and my father continued. Reserve on such a point would be not only useless, but draw down treble misery on us all.” For some time I was lost in conjecture as to the cause of this but yesterday an idea struck me, and if it is well founded, I conjure you to avow it. And yet you are still unhappy, and still avoid our society. “I am happy to remark, my dear son, that you have resumed your former pleasures, and seem to be returning to yourself. It was after my return from one of these rambles that my father, calling me aside, thus addressed me:. But the fresh air and bright sun seldom failed to restore me to some degree of composure and, on my return, I met the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and a more cheerful heart. I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds, and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless. At these moments I took refuge in the most perfect solitude. My father saw this change with pleasure, and he turned his thoughts towards the best method of eradicating the remains of my melancholy, which every now and then would return by fits, and with a devouring blackness overcast the approaching sunshine. My health, which had hitherto declined, was now much restored and my spirits, when unchecked by the memory of my unhappy promise, rose proportionably. I had heard of some discoveries having been made by an English philosopher, the knowledge of which was material to my success, and I sometimes thought of obtaining my father’s consent to visit England for this purpose but I clung to every pretence of delay, and could not resolve to interrupt my returning tranquillity. I found that I could not compose a female without again devoting several months to profound study and laborious disquisition. I feared the vengeance of the disappointed fiend, yet I was unable to overcome my repugnance to the task which was enjoined me. Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to Geneva and I could not collect the courage to recommence my work.
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