In answer to these remonstrances, Pickle observed, that he had
long set the world at defiance; and, as to the opinion of Emilia,
he did not doubt that she would applaud in her heart the resolution
he had taken, and do justice to the purity of his intention. It was
not an easy task to divert our hero from his designs at any time
of life; but, since his confinement, his inflexibility was become
almost insurmountable. The captain, therefore, after having discharged
his conscience, in assuring him that his sister's happiness was
at stake, that his mother had approved of the step she had taken,
and that he himself should be extremely mortified at his refusal,
forbore to press him with further argument, which served only to
rivet him the more strongly in his own opinion, and undertook to
deliver this answer to Emilia's letter:--
Madam,--That I revere the dignity of your virtue with the
utmost veneration, and love you infinitely more than life,
I am at all times ready to demonstrate; but the sacrifice
to honour it is now my turn to pay; and such is the rigour
of my destiny, that, in order to justify your generosity,
I must refuse to profit by your condescension.
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