Jervis, Mr. Longman, or John Arnold, or your father;
and as I was then but struggling with myself, whether to give way to my
honourable inclinations, or to free you, and let you go to your father,
that I might avoid the danger I found myself in of the former; (for I had
absolutely resolved never to wound again even your ears with any
proposals of a contrary nature;) that was the reason I desired you to
permit Mrs. Jewkes to be so much on her guard till I came back, when I
thought I should have decided this disputed point within myself, between
my pride and my inclinations.
This, good sir, said I, accounts well to me for your conduct in that
case, and for what you said to me and Mrs. Jewkes on that occasion: And I
see more and more how much I may depend upon your honour and goodness to
me.--But I will tell you all the truth. And then I recounted to him the
whole affair of the gipsy, and how the letter was put among the loose
grass, etc. And he said, The man who thinks a thousand dragons
sufficient to watch a woman, when her inclination takes a contrary bent,
will find all too little; and she will engage the stones in the street,
or the grass in the field, to act for her, and help on her
correspondence. If the mind, said he, be not engaged, I see there is
hardly any confinement sufficient for the body; and you have told me a
very pretty story; and, as you never gave me any reason to question your
veracity, even in your severest trials, I make no doubt of the truth of
what you have now mentioned: and I will, in my turn, give you such a
proof of mine, that you shall find it carry a conviction with it.
Pages:
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445