While she prayed that she might
become the humble instrument of bringing him into the flock of the
faithful, she petitioned for forgiveness, on her own behalf, if
presumption or indifference to the counsel of the church had caused
her to set too high a value on her influence, and led her into the
dangerous error of hazarding her own soul by espousing a heretic.
There was so much of fervent piety, mingled with so strong a burst of
natural feeling, so much of the woman blended with the angel, in her
prayers, that Middleton could have forgiven her, had she termed him a
Pagan, for the sweetness and interest with which she petitioned in his
favour.
The young man waited until his bride arose from her knees, and then he
joined her, as if entirely ignorant of what had occurred.
"It is getting late, my Inez," he said, "and Don Augustin would be apt
to reproach you with inattention to your health, in being abroad at
such an hour. What then am I to do, who am charged with all his
authority, and twice his love?"
"Be like him in every thing," she answered, looking up in his face,
with tears in her eyes, and speaking with emphasis; "in every thing.
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