CHAPTER XVI
Will not tire the reader
Miss Betsy having her heart and head full of the obligation she had to Mr. Trueworth, and on the first discovery of her senses, thinking he was still near her, cried out, 'Oh, Mr. Trueworth! how shall I thank the goodness you have shewn me!—I have no words to do it; it is from my brothers you must receive those demonstrations of gratitude, which are not in my power to give.'
The brothers looked sometimes on her, and sometimes on each other, with a good deal of surprize all the time she was speaking; till, perceiving she had done, 'To whom are you talking, sister?' said Mr. Francis; 'here is nobody but my brother and myself.'
'Bless me!' cried she, looking round the room, 'how wild my head is!—I knew not where I was—I thought myself still in the house of that wicked woman who betrayed me, and saw my generous deliverer chastising the monster that attempted my destruction.'
'Who was that monster?' demanded the elder Mr. Thoughtless, hastily. 'A villain without a name,' said she; 'for that of Sir Frederick Fineer was but assumed, to hide a common cheat—a robber!'—'And who, say you,' rejoined Mr. Francis, 'was your deliverer?'—'Who, but that best of men!' answered she, 'Mr. Trueworth!—O, brothers! if you have any regard for me, or for the honour of our family, you can never too much revere or love the honour and the virtue of that worthy man.'
'You see, Frank, how greatly you have been to blame,' said the elder Mr. Thoughtless; 'and how much more you might have been, if I had not dissuaded you from following that gentleman; who, I now perceive, was the saviour, not the invader, of our sister's innocence.'—'I blush,' said Mr. Francis, 'at the remembrance of my rashness—I ought, indeed, to have known Trueworth better.'
There passed no more between them on this subject; but on finding Miss Betsy grew more composed, and able to continue a conversation, they obliged her to repeat the particulars of what had happened to her; which she accordingly did with the greatest veracity imaginable, omitting nothing of moment in the shocking narrative.