483페이지 중 123페이지

We were soon joined by Elizabeth. Time had altered her since I

last beheld her; it had endowed her with loveliness surpassing

the beauty of her childish years. There was the same candour, the

same vivacity, but it was allied to an expression more full of

sensibility and intellect. She welcomed me with the greatest

affection. "Your arrival, my dear cousin," said she, "fills me

with hope. You perhaps will find some means to justify my poor

guiltless Justine. Alas! who is safe, if she be convicted of

crime? I rely on her innocence as certainly as I do upon my own.

Our misfortune is doubly hard to us; we have not only lost that

lovely darling boy, but this poor girl, whom I sincerely love, is

to be torn away by even a worse fate. If she is condemned, I

never shall know joy more. But she will not, I am sure she will

not; and then I shall be happy again, even after the sad death of

my little William."