'No; this I dare not promise; let a higher motive influence you; for it is not merely the conduct--it is the heart that must have changed, ere I durst expose my feeble virtue to the trial of your example--your authority; ere I durst make it my duty to shut my eyes against your faults, or to see them with the indulgence of love.' 'Dearest Laura, one word from you will lure me back to the path of virtue--will you wilfully destroy even the wish to return. If for a year--for two years--my conduct should bear the strictest scrutiny--will you not accept this as a proof that my heart is changed--changed in every thing but its love for you--will you not then receive me?' Laura had resisted entreaty--had withstood alarm--had conquered strong affection; but the hope of rousing Hargrave to the views, the pursuits, the habits of a Christian, betrayed her caution, and gladdened her heart to rapture. 'If for two years,' said she, her youthful countenance brightening with delight, 'your conduct is such as you describe--if it will bear the inspection of the wise, of the sober-minded, of the pious,--as my father's friend, as my own friend, will I welcome you.' Thus suddenly raised from despair, Hargrave seemed at the summit of felicity. Once admitted as her 'father's friend, as her own,' he was secure of the accomplishment of his wishes. The time that must first elapse, appeared to him but a moment; and the labours of duty required of him seemed a smiling dream. Love and joy animated every feature of his fine countenance; he threw himself at the feet of Laura, and rapturously blessed her for her condescension. His extasies first made her sensible of the extent of her concession; and she feared that she had gone too far. But with her, a promise, however inadvertent, was a sacred thing, which she would neither qualify nor retract. She contented herself, therefore, with merely repeating the terms of it, emphatically guarding the conditions. Desirous now to have leisure for reflection, she reminded him that the lateness of the hour made it fit that he should depart; and, inwardly persuaded that she would not long obdurately refuse him another interview, he obeyed without much opposition. CHAPTER VI