You shall have it in a proper time, said she; but, indeed, I was in
earnest to get it out of your hands, for fear you should make an ill use
of it. And so we cavilled upon this subject as we walked in, and I went
up to write my letter to my master; and, as I intended to shew it her, I
resolved to write accordingly as to her part of it; for I made little
account of his offer of Mrs. Jervis to me, instead of this wicked woman,
(though the most agreeable thing that could have befallen me, except my
escape from hence,) nor indeed any thing he said. For to be honourable,
in the just sense of the word, he need not have caused me to be run away
with, and confined as I am. I wrote as follows:
'HONOURED SIR,
'When I consider how easily you might make me happy, since all I desire
is to be permitted to go to my poor father and mother; when I reflect
upon your former proposal to me in relation to a certain person, not one
word of which is now mentioned; and upon my being in that strange manner
run away with, and still kept here a miserable prisoner; do you think,
sir, (pardon your poor servant's freedom; my fears make me bold; do you
think, I say,) that your general assurances of honour to me, can have the
effect upon me, that, were it not for these things, all your words ought
to have?--O, good sir! I too much apprehend that your notions of honour
and mine are very different from one another: and I have no other hopes
but in your continued absence.
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