Отрывок из книги
Barbara Hofland
Published by Good Press, 2021
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Under these painful impressions, there were moments when she was almost tempted to ask Mr. Franklin for a promise she well knew he would make with avidity, that of never engaging in a second union; but the recollection of all she had observed in other men, who had been strongly attached to their wives, and who had yet (with scarcely a solitary exception) been in the course of a few years married again, the consciousness that he was a man peculiarly fitted to enjoy and adorn the connubial state, and that his person, manners, and station in life, were such as render it probable that many women would endeavour to gain his affection, deterred her from engaging him in a promise, which she was convinced he would keep, however painful, and which, the moment it became so, would defeat her wishes, which were as ardently desirous of his welfare, as they could be even of Louisa's.
Accustoming herself to look much on this subject, Mrs. Franklin at length beheld it without dismay; and by directing her judgment to the investigation of the good as well as evil, which might arise to her child from such a connection, she was enabled in a great measure to secure the one and ward off the other, so far as it was likely to affect the mind of Louisa; and though it was (with the utmost caution) yet almost impossible to revert to the termination of her life, without awakening grief, even to agony, in the throbbing heart of the poor child, yet she contrived so to bring forward examples and exhortations, that, long before the evening alluded to, a ground-work of obedience and friendly confidence had been laid in the breast of Louisa, when circumstances should call it into action, the happy effects of which were found long after the lips which uttered them were mouldered in the dust.
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