Do you really then imagine me a fool? or do
you fancy yourself capable of so entirely persuading me out of my
senses, that I should deliver my whole fortune into your power, in
order to enable you to support your pleasures at my expense? Are these
the proofs of love which I expected? Is this the return for--? but I
scorn to upbraid you, and am in great admiration of your Profound
respect.
P.S. I am prevented from revising:-- Perhaps I have said more than I
meant.-- Come to me at eight this evening.
Jones, by the advice of his privy-council, replied:
MADAM,
It is impossible to express how much I am shocked at the suspicion
you entertain of me. Can Lady Bellaston have conferred favours on a
man whom she could believe capable of so base a design? or can she
treat the most solemn tie of love with contempt? Can you imagine,
madam, that if the violence of my passion, in an unguarded moment,
overcame the tenderness which I have for your honour, I would think of
indulging myself in the continuance of an intercourse which could
not possibly escape long the notice of the world; and which, when
discovered, must prove so fatal to your reputation? If such be your
opinion of me, I must pray for a sudden opportunity of returning those
pecuniary obligations, which I have been so unfortunate to receive
at your hands; and for those of a more tender kind, I shall ever
remain, &c. And so concluded in the very words with which he had
concluded the former letter.
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