No, no, Jack!--Circumstanced and situated as we are, I am not afraid of
that. And hate me! Why should she hate the man who loves her upon proof?
And then for a little hint at reprisal--am I not justified in my
resolutions of trying her virtue, who is resolved, as I may say, to try
mine? Who has declared that she will not marry me, till she has hopes of
my reformation?
And now, to put an end to this sober argumentation, Wilt thou not
thyself (whom I have supposed an advocate for the lady, because I know
that Lord M. has put thee upon using the interest he thinks thou hast in
me, to persuade me to enter the pale; wilt thou not thyself) allow me to
try if I cannot awaken the woman in her?--To try if she, with all that
glowing symmetry of parts, and that full bloom of vernal graces, by
which she attracts every eye, be really inflexible as to the grand
article?
Let me begin then, as opportunity presents--I will; and watch her
every step to find one sliding one; her every moment to find the
moment critical. And the rather, as she spares me not, but takes every
advantage that offers to puzzle and plague me; nor expect nor thinks me
to be a good man.
If she be a woman, and love me, I shall surely catch her once tripping:
for love was ever a traitor to its harbourer: and love within, and I
without, she will be more than woman, as the poet says, or I less than
man, if I succeed not.
Now, Belford, all is out. The lady is mine; shall be more mine.
Marriage, I see, is in my power, now she is so. Else perhaps it had not.
If I can have her without marriage, who can blame me for trying? If not,
great will be her glory, and my future confidence. And well will she
merit the sacrifice I shall make her of my liberty; and from all her sex
honours next to divine, for giving a proof, 'that there was once a woman
whose virtue no trials, no stratagems, no temptations, even from the man
she hated not, could overpower.'
Now wilt thou see all my circulation: as in a glass wilt thou see
it.--CABALA, however, is the word;* nor let the secret escape thee even
in thy dreams.
* This word, whenever used by any of these gentlemen, was agreed to imply
an inviolable secret.
Nobody doubts that she is to be my wife. Let her pass for such when I
give the word. 'Mean time reformation shall be my stalking-horse; some
one of the women in London, if I can get her hither, my bird.' And so
much for this time.