Her elopement can be equalled only by the infatuation which
caused her ruin.
"But let no one reproach her memory.
Her life has paid the forfeit of her folly.
Let that suffice."
I am told that Major Sanford is quite frantic. Sure I am that he has
reason to be. If the mischiefs he has brought upon others return upon
his own head, dreadful indeed must be his portion. His wife has left
him, and returned to her parents. His estate, which has been long
mortgaged, is taken from him, and poverty and disgrace await him. Heaven
seldom leaves injured innocence unavenged. Wretch that he is, he ought
forever to be banished from human society! I shall continue with Mrs.
Wharton till the lenient hand of time has assuaged her sorrows, and then
make my promised visit to you. I will bring Eliza's posthumous papers
with me when I come to Boston, as I have not time to copy them now.
I foresee, my dear Mrs. Sumner, that this disastrous affair will suspend
your enjoyments, as it has mine. But what are our feelings, compared
with the pangs which rend a parent's heart? This parent I here behold
inhumanly stripped of the best solace of her declining years by the
insnaring machinations of a profligate debauchee. Not only the life,
but, what was still dearer, the reputation and virtue? of the
unfortunate Eliza have fallen victims at the shrine of _libertinism_.
Detested be the epithet.
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