For the present! said I, and torture then wrung my
heart!--But is it in your instructions, that you must lie with me? Yes,
indeed, said she.--I am sorry for it, said I. Why, said she, I am
wholesome, and cleanly too, I'll assure you. Yes, said I, I don't doubt
that; but I love to lie by myself. How so? said she; Was not Mrs. Jervis
your bed-fellow at t'other house?
Well, said I, quite sick of her, and my condition; you must do as you are
instructed, I think. I can't help myself, and am a most miserable
creature. She repeated her insufferable nonsense. Mighty miserable,
indeed, to be so well beloved by one of the finest gentlemen in England!
I am now come down in my writing to this present SATURDAY, and a deal I
have written.
My wicked bed-fellow has very punctual orders, it seems; for she locks me
and herself in, and ties the two keys (for there is a double door to the
room) about her wrist, when she goes to bed. She talks of the house
having been attempted to be broken open two or three times; whether to
fright me, I can't tell; but it makes me fearful; though not so much as I
should be, if I had not other and greater fears.
I slept but little last night, and got up, and pretended to sit by the
window, which looks into the spacious gardens; but I was writing all the
time, from break of day, to her getting up, and after, when she was
absent.
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