The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

more than once on the point of producing the billet, in
vindication of herself from her lover’s half-hinted suspicions.
But there is something in stooping to justification
which the pride of innocence does not at all times
willingly submit to; besides that the threats contained
in the letter, in case of her betraying the secret, hung
heavy on her heart. It is probable, however, that had
they remained longer together, she might have taken
the resolution to submit the whole matter to Butler, and
be guided by him as to the line of conduct which she
should adopt. And when, by the sudden interruption of
their conference, she lost the opportunity of doing so,
she felt as if she had been unjust to a friend, whose advice
might have been highly useful, and whose attachment
deserved her full and unreserved confidence.
To have recourse to her father upon this occasion, she
considered as highly imprudent. There was no possibility
of conjecturing in what light the matter might strike
old David, whose manner of acting and thinking in extraordinary
circumstances depended upon feelings and
principles peculiar to himself, the operation of which
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could not be calculated upon even by those best acquainted
with him. To have requested some female friend
to have accompanied her to the place of rendezvous,
would perhaps have been the most eligible expedient;
but the threats of the writer, that betraying his secret
would prevent their meeting (on which her sister’s safety
was said to depend) from taking place at all, would have
deterred her from making such a confidence, even had
she known a person in whom she thought it could with
safety have been reposed. But she knew none such. Their
acquaintance with the cottagers in the vicinity had been
very slight, and limited to trifling acts of good
neighbourhood. Jeanie knew little of them, and what
she knew did not greatly incline her to trust any of them.
They were of the order of loquacious good-humoured
gossips usually found in their situation of life; and their
conversation had at all times few charms for a young
woman, to whom nature and the circumstance of a solitary
life had given a depth of thought and force of character
superior to the frivolous part of her sex, whether
in high or low degree.