th a
spite which was very visible in his countenance, that whatever
disparity there was between their ages, it would soon diminish by the
course of life she followed, and which, if she persisted in, would, in
a very little time, make her become an object below the voice of
censure.

They must know little of the sex, that do not know no affront can be
so stinging as one offered to their beauty, even tho' conscious of
having no great share of it; but the wife of Natura had heard too many
flatteries, not to inspire her with the highest idea of her charms,
which the little respect he now testified to have for them, did not at
all abate, and only served to make her despise his stupidity, as she
termed it.

No measures after this were kept between them; she seemed to take a
pleasure in every thing that gave him pain; she coquetted before his
face with every handsome man that came in her way, and in fine gave
herself such airs as the most patient husband could not have permitted
her long to persist in. Making use of the authority the laws had given
him, he, in a manner, forced her into the country, upwards of an
hundred miles from London, though it was then in the depth of winter,
and placed persons about her, with orders to prevent her from all
means of returning, till he should judge it proper for her so to do.

On this she wrote to her uncle, complaining of the hard treatment she
received, and beseeching him to take some measures to oblige her
husband to restore her liberty. The minister, who had at that time
much greater concerns upon his hands on his own account, did not care
to give himself any trouble about private family affairs; he only just
mentioned to Natura the letter she had sent to him, and the purport of
it; and on his relating to him the reasons that had compelled him to
put this restraint on her behaviour, told him, he should not interfere
between them; so that Natura found he had nothing to apprehend for
what he had done.

Finding this step had produced nothing for her purpose, she at last
condescended to submit to her justly offended husband; and on her
solemn and repeated promises of regulating her conduct for the future
in such a manner as he should approve, he was prevailed upon by her
seeming contrition, to consent to make trial how far her heart
corresponded with her professions:--it was agreed, to prevent the town
from inspecting too deeply on what had passed, that she should pretend
her absence