To Captain Fitzgerald.
Temple-house, Friday.
Your friend is the happiest of mankind.
Every anxiety is removed from my Emily's dear bosom: a father's
sanction leaves her nothing to desire.
You may remember, she wished to delay our marriage: her motive was,
to wait Colonel Willmott's return.
Though promised by him to another, she hoped to bring him to leave
her heart free; little did she think the man destined for her by her
father, was the happy Rivers her heart had chosen.
Bound by a solemn vow, she concealed the circumstances of her birth
even from me.
She resolved never to marry another, yet thought duty obliged her to
wait her father's arrival.
She kindly supposed he would see me with her eyes, and, when he knew
me, change his design in my favor: she fancied he would crown her love
as the reward of her obedience in delaying her marriage.
My importunity, and the fear of giving me room to doubt her
tenderness, as her vow prevented such an explanation as would have
satisfied me, bore down her duty to a father whom she had never seen,
and whom she had supposed dead, till the arrival of Mrs. Melmoth's
letters; having been two years without hearing any thing of him.
She married me, determined to give up her right to half his fortune
in favor of the person for whom he designed her; and hoped, by that
means, to discharge her father's obligations, which she could not pay
at the expence of sacrificing her heart.
But she writes to Mrs. Fitzgerald, and will tell you all.
Come and share the happiness of your friends.
Adieu!
Your faithful
Ed. Rivers.