Will you let Catharine assist me to bed?--I have not had my clothes off
since Thursday night.
What she further said the fellow heard not, she leaning upon the maid,
and going up stairs.
But dost thou not observe, what a strange, what an uncommon openness of
heart reigns in this lady? She had been in a prison, she said, before a
stranger in the shop, and before the maid-servant: and so, probably, she
would have said, had there been twenty people in the shop.
The disgrace she cannot hide from herself, as she says in her letter to
Lady Betty, she is not solicitous to conceal from the world!
But this makes it evident to me, that she is resolved to keep no terms
with thee. And yet to be able to put up such a prayer for thee, as she
did in her prison; [I will often mention the prison-room, to tease thee!]
Does this not show, that revenge has very little sway in her mind; though
she can retain so much proper resentment?
And this is another excellence in this admirable woman's character: for
whom, before her, have we met with in the whole sex, or in ours either,
that knew how, in practice, to distinguish between REVENGE and
RESENTMENT, for base and ungrateful treatment?
'Tis a cursed thing, after all, that such a woman as this should be
treated as she has been treated. Hadst thou been a king, and done as
thou hast done by such a meritorious innocent, I believe, in my heart, it
would have been adjudged to be a national sin, and the sword, the
pestilence, or famine, must have atoned for it!--But as thou art a
private man, thou wilt certainly meet with thy punishment, (besides what
thou mayest expect from the justice of the country, and the vengeance of
her friends,) as she will her reward, HEREAFTER.
It must be so, if there be really such a thing as future remuneration; as
now I am more and more convinced there must:--Else, what a hard fate is
her's, whose punishment, to all appearance, has so much exceeded her
fault? And, as to thine, how can temporary burnings, wert thou by some
accident to be consumed in thy bed, expiate for thy abominable vileness
to her, in breach of all obligations moral and divine?
I was resolved to lose no time in having every thing which belonged to
the lady at the cursed woman's sent her. Accordingly, I took coach to
Smith's, and procured the lady, (to whom I sent up my compliments, and
inquiries how she bore her removal,) ill as she sent down word she was,
to give proper direction to Mrs. Smith: whom I took with me to
Sinclair's: and who saw every thing looked out, and put into the trunks
and boxes they were first brought in, and carried away in two coaches.
Had I not been there, Sally and Polly would each of them have taken to
herself something of the poor lady's spoils. This they declared: and I
had some difficulty to get from Sally a fine Brussels-lace head, which
she had the confidence to say she would wear for Miss Harlowe's sake.
Nor should either I or Mrs. Smith have known she had got it, had she not
been in search of the ruffles belonging to it.
My resentment on this occasion, and the conversation which Mrs. Smith and
I had, (in which I not only expatiated on the merits of the lady, but
expressed my concern for her sufferings; though I left her room to
suppose her married, yet without averring it,) gave me high credit with
the good woman: so that we are perfectly well acquainted already: by
which means I shall be enabled to give you accounts from time to time of
all that passes; and which I will be very industrious to do, provided I
may depend upon the solemn promises I have given the lady, in your name,
as well as in my own, that she shall be free from all personal
molestation from you. And thus shall I have it in my power to return in
kind your writing favours; and preserve my short-hand besides: which,
till this correspondence was opened, I had pretty much neglected.
I ordered the abandoned women to make out your account. They answered,
That they would do it with a vengeance. Indeed they breathe nothing but
vengeance. For now, they say, you will assuredly marry; and your example
will be followed by all your friends and companions--as the old one says,
to the utter ruin of her poor house.