Now, Jack, what terms wouldst thou have me to keep with such a sweet
corruptress? Seest thou not how she hates me? Seest thou not that she
is resolved never to forgive me? Seest thou not, however, that she must
disgrace herself in the eye of the world, if she actually should
escape? That she must be subjected to infinite distress and hazard! For
whom has she to receive and protect her? Yet to determine to risque all
these evils! and furthermore to stoop to artifice, to be guilty of the
reigning vice of the times, of bribery and corruption! O Jack, Jack!
say not, write not another word in her favour!
Thou hast blamed me for bringing her to this house: but had I carried
her to any other in England, where there would have been one servant or
inmate capable either of compassion or corruption, what must have been
the consequence?
But seest thou not, however, that in this flimsy contrivance, the dear
implacable, like a drowning man, catches at a straw to save herself!—A
straw shall she find to be the refuge she has resorted to.