Imogen was totally uninured to the contemplation of hypocrisy, and
immediately yielded the most unreserved credit to these professions. Her
joy was extreme at the change in the dispositions of Roderic, and her
admiration of the irresistible charms of rectitude pious and profound.
The praises bestowed upon her seemed distinguishing and sincere, and she
drank them in with the most visible complacency. She expressed however
an ingenuous diffidence of her capacity for the task of an instructor,
and she intreated at any rate to be permitted to withdraw for a short
time to dry up the tears of her disconsolate parents.
These difficulties were too obvious to create any embarrassment to so
consummate a deceiver. He described the danger of that vicious mistrust
of our powers, that is the enemy of all generous and heroic action. He
reminded his captive how recent were his purposes, and how many
unforeseen incidents might be crowded into so eventful a moment. There
were goblins, he said, ever ready to seduce the wanderer from his wished
return; and he had been too much their prey not to have every thing to
dread from the subtlety of their machinations. On the other hand, no
character was suspended on the longer or shorter duration of the
uneasiness of the parents of Imogen; and the joyful surprise they would
ere long experience, might abundantly compensate for any temporary
anxiety and solicitude.
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