--
But, indeed, every lady is not a Pamela.
You delight to banter your poor servant, said I.
Nay, continued he, I believe I must assume to myself half the merit of
your wit, too; for the innocent exercises you have had for it, from me,
have certainly sharpened your invention.
Sir, said I, could I have been without those innocent exercises, as you
are pleased to call them, I should have been glad to have been as dull as
a beetle. But then, Pamela, said he, I should not have loved you so
well. But then, sir, I should have been safe, easy, and happy.--Ay, may
be so, and may be not; and the wife, too, of some clouterly plough-boy.
But then, sir, I should have been content and innocent; and that's better
than being a princess, and not so. And may be not, said he; for if you
had had that pretty face, some of us keen fox-hunters should have found
you out; and, in spite of your romantic notions, (which then, too,
perhaps, would not have had so strong a place in your mind,) might have
been more happy with the ploughman's wife, than I have been with my
mother's Pamela. I hope, sir, said I, God would have given me more
grace.
Well, but, resumed he, as to these writings of yours, that follow your
fine plot, I must see them. Indeed, sir, you must not, if I can help it.
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