She looked surprised--now on me, now on her dear master; and I, not knowing what he would say, looked a little attentive. "I am sorry--I am very sorry for it, Sir," said she, curtseying low:--"but should be more sorry, if _I_ were the unhappy occasion."
"Why, Mrs. Jervis, I can't say but it is on your account that I must blame her."
This gave us both confusion, but especially the good woman; for still I hoped much from his kind behaviour to me just before--and she said, "Indeed, Sir, I could never deserve----"
He interrupted her--"My charge against you, Pamela," said he, "is that of niggardliness, and no other; for I will put you both out of your pain: you ought not to have found out the method of repayment.
"The dear creature," said he, to Mrs. Jervis, "seldom does any thing that can be mended; but, I think, when your good conduct deserved an annual acknowledgment from me, in addition to your salary, the lady should have shewed herself no less pleased with your service than the gentleman. Had it been for old acquaintance-sake, for sex-sake, she should not have given me cause to upbraid her on this head. But I will tell you, that you must look upon the forty pounds you have, as the effect of just distinction on many accounts: and your salary from last quarter-day shall be advanced, as the dear niggard intended it some years hence; and let me only add, that when my Pamela first begins to shew a coldness to her Mrs. Jervis, I shall then suspect she is beginning to decline in that humble virtue, which is now peculiar to herself and makes her the delight of all who converse with her."
He was thus pleased to say: thus, with the most graceful generosity, and a nobleness of mind _truly_ peculiar to himself, was he pleased to _act_: and what could Mrs. Jervis or I say to him?--Why, indeed, nothing at all!--We could only look upon one another, with our eyes and our hearts full of a gratitude that would not permit either of us to speak, but which expressed itself at last in a manner he was pleased to call more elegant than words--with uplifted folded hands, and tears of joy.
O my dear lady! how many opportunities have the beneficent _rich_ to make _themselves_, as well as their _fellow-creatures_, happy! All that I could think, or say, or act, was but my duty before; what a sense of obligation then must I lie under to this most generous of men!