As I walked by his side homeward, I read well in his iron silence all he felt towards me: the disappointment of an austere and despotic nature, which has met resistance where it expected submission--the disapprobation of a cool, inflexible judgment, which has detected in another feelings and views in which it has no power to sympathise: in short, as a man, he would have wished to coerce me into obedience: it was only as a sincere Christian he bore so patiently with my perversity, and allowed so long a space for reflection and repentance.
Gli lessi in faccia la delusione di una natura austera e dispotica che aveva incontrato resistenza là dove contava trovar sommissione, la disapprovazione di un giudice freddo e inflessibile che aveva veduto la manifestazione di sentimenti che non poteva ammettere. In una parola l'uomo avrebbe voluto costringermi all'obbedienza e soltanto il cristiano sopportava la mia sincerità e mi accordava tempo a riflettere e a pentirmi.