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am: nor will I presume so much as to touch your garment, till I have the honour to call so great a blessing lawfully mine.

O thou guileful betrayer! There is a just God, whom thou invokest yet the thunderbolt descends not; and thou livest to imprecate and deceive!

My dearest life! rising; for I hoped she was relenting

Hadst thou not sinned beyond the possibility of forgiveness, interrupted she; and this had been the first time. that thus thou solemnly promisest and invokest the vengeance thou hast as often defied; the desperateness of my condition might have induced me to think of taking a wretched chance with a man so profligate. But, after what I have suffered by thee, it would be criminal in me to wish to bind my soul in covenant to a man so nearly allied to perdition.

Good God-how uncharitable !-I offer not to defend -would to heaven that I could recall-so nearly allied to perdition, madam !-so profligate a man, madam

O how short is expression of thy crimes, and of my sufferings !—such premeditation in thy baseness!—to prostitute the characters of persons of honour of thy own family—and all to delude a poor creature, whom thou oughtest but why talk I to thee?-be thy crimes upon thy head!—Once more I ask thee, am I, or am I not, at my own liberty now?

I offered to speak in defence of the women, declaring that they really were the very persons

Presume not, interrupted she, base as thou art, to say one word in thine own vindication on this head. I have been contemplating their behaviour, their conversation, their over-ready acquiescences to my declarations in thy disfavour; their free, yet affectedly reserved light manners: and now, that the sad event has opened my eyes, and I have compared facts and passages together, in the little

interval that has been lent me, I wonder I could not distinguish the behaviour of the unmatron-like jilt whom thou broughtest to betray me, from the worthy lady whom thou hast the honour to call thy aunt: and that I could not detect the superficial creature, whom thou passest upon me for the virtuous Miss Montague.

Amazing uncharitableness in a lady so good herself !— That the high spirits those ladies were in to see you, should subject them to such censures!—I do most solemnly vow, madam

That they were, interrupting me, verily and indeed Lady Betty Lawrence, and thy cousin Montague!-O wretch ! I see by thy solemn averment (I had not yet averred it) what credit ought to be given to all the rest. Had I no other proof

Interrupting her, I besought her patient ear.

I would have proceeded; and particularly would have said something of Captain Tomlinson and her uncle; but she would not hear me further. And indeed it was with visible indignation, and not without several angry interruptions, that she heard me say so much.

Would I dare, she asked me, to offer at a palliation of my baseness? The two women, she was convinced, were impostors. She knew not but Captain Tomlinson, and Mr. Mennell, were so too. But, whether they were so or not, I was. And she insisted upon being at her own disposal for the remainder of her short life-for indeed she abhorred me in every light; and more particularly in that, in which I offered myself to her acceptance.

And, saying this, she flung from me; leaving me absolutely shocked and confounded at her part of a conversation, which she began with such uncommon, however severe composure, and concluded with so much sincere and unaffected indignation.

Monday Morning.

I must write on. Nothing else can divert me: and I

think thou canst not have been a dog to me. I would fain have closed my eyes, but sleep flies me.

It is now near six-the sun for two hours past has been illuminating everything about me: for that impartial orb shines upon mother Sinclair's house, as well as upon any other but nothing within me can it illuminate.

At day-dawn I looked through the key-hole of my beloved's door. She had declared she would not put off her clothes any more in this house. There I beheld her in a sweet slumber, which I hope will prove refreshing to her disturbed senses; sitting in her elbow-chair, her apron over her head; her head supported by one sweet hand, the other hand hanging down upon her side, in a sleepy lifelessness; half of one pretty foot only visible.

See the difference in our cases, thought I! She, the charming injured, can sweetly sleep, while the varletinjurer cannot close his eyes; and has been trying to no purpose the whole night to divert his melancholy, and to fly from himself!

As every vice generally brings on its own punishment, even in this life; if anything were to tempt me to doubt of future punishment, it would be, that there can hardly be a greater than that which I at this instant experience in my own remorse.

I hope it will go off.—If not, well will the dear creature be avenged; for I shall be the most miserable of men.

Six o'clock.

Just now Dorcas tells me, that her lady is preparing openly, and without disguise, to be gone. Very probable. The humour she flew away from me in last night, has given me expectation of such an enterprise.

Now, Jack, to be thus hated, and despised!-and if I have sinned beyond forgiveness

But she has sent me a message by Dorcas, that she will meet me in the dining-room; and desires (odd enough ')

that the wench may be present at the conversation that shall pass between us. This message gives me hope.

Nine o'clock.

Confounded art, cunning villany!-By my soul, she had like to have slipped through my fingers. She meant nothing by her message, but to get Dorcas out of the way, and a clear coast. Is a fancied distress sufficient to justify this lady for dispensing with her principles? Does she not show me, that she can wilfully deceive, as well as I?

Had she been in the fore-house, and no passage to go. through to get at the street-door, she had certainly been gone. But her haste betrayed her: for Sally Martin. happening to be in the fore-parlour, and hearing a swifter motion than usual, and a rustling of silks, as if from somebody in a hurry, looked out; and seeing who it was, stepped between her and the door, and set her back against it.

You must not go, madam. Indeed you must not.

By what right?-And how dare you?-And such-like imperious airs the dear creature gave herself.—While Sally called out for her aunt; and half a dozen voices. joined instantly in the cry, for me to hasten down, to hasten down, in a moment.

I was gravely instructing Dorcas above-stairs, and wondering what would be the subject of the conversation to which the wench was to be a witness, when these outcries reached my ears. And down I flew. And there was the charming creature, the sweet deceiver, panting for breath, her back against the partition, a parcel in her hand (women make no excursions without their parcels), Sally, Polly (but Polly obligingly pleading for her), the mother Mabell, and Peter (the footman of the house), about her; all, however, keeping their distance; the mother and Sally between her and the door-in her soft rage the dear soul repeating, I will go !-Nobody has a right—I will go !—If you kill me, women, I won't go up again!

As soon as she saw me, she stepped a pace or two towards me; Mr. Lovelace, I will go! said she-do you authorise these women-what right have they, or you either, to stop me?

I desired them to leave us, all but Dorcas, who was down as soon as I. I then thought it right to assume an air of resolution, having found my tameness so greatly triumphed over. And now, my dear, said I (urging her reluctant feet) be pleased to walk into the fore-parlour. Here, since you will not go upstairs; here, we may hold our parley; and Dorcas be witness to it.-And now, madam, seating her, and sticking my hands in my sides, your pleasure!

Insolent villain! said the furious lady. And, rising, ran to the window, and threw up the sash (she knew not, I suppose, that there were iron rails before the windows). And, when she found she could not get out into the street, clasping her uplifted hands together, having dropped her parcel-for the love of God, good honest man for the love of God, mistress-(to two passers-by) a poor, poor creature, said she, ruined!

I clasped her in my arms, people beginning to gather about the window and then she cried out, murder! help! help and carried her up to the dining-room, in spite of her little plotting heart (as I may now call it) although she violently struggled, catching hold of the banisters here and there, as she could. I would have seated her there; but she sunk down half-motionless, pale as ashes. And a violent burst of tears happily relieved her.

Dorcas wept over her. The wench was actually moved for her!

Violent hysterics succeeded. I left her to Mabell, Dorcas, and Polly; the latter the most supportable to her of the sisterhood.

This attempt, so resolutely made, alarmed me not a little. Mrs. Sinclair, and her nymphs, are much more con

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