triumph over Hawkins, or perhaps he regarded it less as a triumph, than
an overthrow, because it had failed of coming up to the extent of his
malice.] To what purpose had Heaven given him a feeling of injury, and
an instinct to resent, while he could in no case make his resentment
felt! It was only necessary for him to be the enemy of any person, to
insure that person's being safe against the reach of misfortune. What
insults, the most shocking and repeated, had he received from this
paltry girl! And by whom was she now torn from his indignation? By that
devil that haunted him at every moment, that crossed him at every step,
that fixed at pleasure his arrows in his heart, and made mows and
mockery at his insufferable tortures."

There was one other reflection that increased his anguish, and made him
careless and desperate as to his future conduct. It was in vain to
conceal from himself that his reputation would be cruelly wounded by
this event. He had imagined that, while Emily was forced into this
odious marriage, she would be obliged by decorum, as soon as the event
was decided, to draw a veil over the compulsion she had suffered. But
this security was now lost, and Mr. Falkland would take a pride in
publishing his dishonour. Though the provocations he had received from
Miss Melville would, in his own opinion, have justified him in any
treatment he should have thought proper to inflict, he was sensible the
world would see the matter in a different light. This reflection
augmented the violence of his resolutions, and determined him to refuse
no means by which he could transfer the anguish that now preyed upon his
own mind to that of another.

Meanwhile, the composure and magnanimity of Emily had considerably
subsided, the moment she believed herself in a place of safety. While
danger and injustice assailed her with their menaces, she found in