Frankenstein

marriage. We have been unfortunate, and recent events have drawn us
from that every-day tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities. You
are younger; yet I do not suppose, possessed as you are of a competent
fortune, that an early marriage would at all interfere with any future
plans of honour and utility that you may have formed. Do not suppose,
however, that I wish to dictate happiness to you, or that a delay on
your part would cause me any serious uneasiness. Interpret my words with
candour, and answer me, I conjure you, with confidence and sincerity."

I listened to my father in silence, and remained for some time incapable
of offering any reply. I revolved rapidly in my mind a multitude of
thoughts, and endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion. Alas! to me the
idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and
dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled,
and dared not break; or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not
impend over me and my devoted family! Could I enter into a festival with
this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck, and bowing me to the
ground. I must perform my engagement, and let the monster depart with