- This Pleased Him Very Well, And He Ran Directly To The
Room Where He Was Informed She Was, And After
Some little discourse,
which he thought was becoming enough from a person of his condition to
one of her's, began
To treat her with freedoms which she could not help
resisting with more fierceness than he had been accustomed to from women
of a much higher rank; but as he had no great notion of virtue,
especially among people of her sphere, he mistook all she said or did
for artifice; and imagining she enhanced the merit of the gift only to
enhance the recompence, he told her he would make her a handsome
settlement, and offered, as an earnest of his future gratitude, a purse
of money. The generous maid fired with a noble disdain at a proposal,
which she looked on only as an additional insult, struck down the purse
with the utmost indignation and cried, she was not of the number of
those who thought gold an equivalent for infamy; and that mean as she
appeared, not all his wealth should bribe her to a dishonourable action.
At first he endeavoured to laugh her out of such idle notions as he
called them, and was so far from being rebuffed at any thing she said,
that he began to kiss and toy with her more freely than before, telling
her he would bring her into a better humour; but he was wholly deceived
in his expectations, if he had any of the nature he pretended, for she
became so irritated at being treated in this manner, that she called out
to the servants to come to her assistance, and protected she would not
stay an hour longer in the house if she could not be secured from such
impertinencies; on which he said she was a silly romantic fool, and
flung out of the room.
Mrs. C - - ge hearing there had been some bustle, came up soon after and
found Louisa in tears: she immediately complained, of mr. B - - n's
behaviour to her, and said, tho' she acknowledged herself under many
obligations to her for the favours she had conferred on her, she could
not think of remaining in a place where, tho' she could not say her
virtue had any severe trials, because she had a natural detestation to
crimes of the kind that gentleman and some others had mentioned, yet her
person was liable to be affronted. The milliner, who was surprized to
hear her talk in this manner, but who understood her trade perfectly
well, answered, that he was the best conditioned civil gentleman in the
world; - that she did not know how it happened; - that she was certain
indeed he loved her; and that it was in his power to make her a very
happy woman if she were inclined to accept his offers; - but she would
perswade her to nothing.
These kind of discourses created a kind of abhorrence in Louisa, as they
plainly shewed her, what before she had some reason to believe, that she
was in the house of one who would think nothing a crime that she found
it her own interest to promote. However, she thought it would be
imprudent to break too abruptly with her, and contented herself for the
present with encasing her promise that neither mr. B - - n, nor any other
person should for the future give her the least interruption of the
like sort.
From this day, however, she was continually ruminating how she should
quit her house, without running the risque of disobliging her so far as
not to be employed by her; for tho' she found herself at present free
from any of those importunities to which both by nature and principles
she was so averse, yet she could not answer to herself the continuing in
a place where virtue was treated as a thing of little or no consequence,
and where she knew not how soon she might again be subjected
to affronts.
Amidst these meditations the thoughts of Dorilaus frequently intervened:
she reflected on the obligations she had to him, and the mighty
difference between the morals of that truly noble and generous man, and
most of those she had seen at mrs. C - - ge's: she wondered at herself at
the antipathy she had to him as a husband, whom she so dearly loved and
honoured as a friend; yet nothing could make her wish to be again on the
same terms with him she had lately been. It also greatly added to her
affliction that she knew not how to direct to her brother; for at the
time of his departure, little suspicious of having any occasion to
change the place of her abode, she had left the care of that entirely to
Dorilaus. She was one morning very much lost in thought on the odd
circumstances of her fortune, when a Gazette happening to lye upon the
table, she cast her eye, without design, upon the following
advertisement.
'Whereas a young gentlewoman has lately
thought fit to abscond from her best friends,
and with the most diligent search that could possibly
be made after her has not yet been heard of,
this is to acquaint her that if she pleases to return,
she shall hereafter have no disturbance of that
nature which it is supposed occasioned her withdrawing
herself, but live entirely according to
her own inclinations; and this the advertiser
hereof gives his word and honour (neither of
which she has any cause to doubt) faithfully to
adhere to.'
'It shall also be at her choice to live either at
the house she quitted, or to be again under the
care of that gentlewoman who was entrusted
with her education: she is therefore requested to
conceal herself no longer, lest her youth, beauty,
and inexperience of the town should betray her
innocence into those very snares she fears to fall
into.'
The very beginning of this paragraph gave her a conjecture it was meant
for no other than herself; and the more she read, the more she grew
convinced, of it.
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