h a thousand fond presages. I answered in the
affirmative; and we met by accident at the ball. I could nut behold him
without emotion: when he accosted me, his well-known voice made my heart
vibrate, like a musical chord, when its unison is struck. All the ideas
of our past love, which the lapse of time and absence had enfeebled and
lulled to sleep, now awoke, and were reinspired by his appearance; so
that his artful excuses were easily admitted: I forgave him all that
I had suffered on his account, because he was the natural lord of my
affection; and our former correspondence was renewed.

"I thought myself in a new world of bliss in consequence of this
reconciliation, the rapture of which continued unimpaired for the space
of four months, during which time he was fonder of me, if possible, than
before; repeated his promise of marriage, if we should ever have it in
our power; assured me he had never been happy since he left me: that
he believed no woman loved like me. And indeed, to have a notion of my
passion for that man, you must first have loved as I did. But, through
a strange caprice, I broke off the correspondence, out of apprehension
that he would forsake me again. From his past conduct I dreaded what
might happen; and the remembrance of what I had undergone by his
inconstancy, filled my imagination with such horror, that I could not
endure the shocking prospect, and prematurely plunged myself into the
danger, rather than endure the terrors of expectation. I remembered
that his former attachment began in the season of my prosperity, when
my fortune was in the zenith, and my youth in its prime; and that he had
forsaken me in the day of trouble when my life became embarrassed, and
my circumstances were on the decline. I foresaw nothing but continual
persecution from my husband, and feared, that, once the keener
transports of our reconciliation should be over, his affection would
sink under the severity of its trial. In consequence of this desertion,
I received a letter from him, acknowledging that he was rightly served,
but that my retreat gave him inexpressible concern.

"Meanwhile Lord -- continued to act in the character of a fiend,
tormenting me with his nauseous importunities. He prevailed upon the
duke of L-- to employ his influence in persuading me to live with him;
assuring his grace, that I had actually promised to give him that proof
of my obedience, and that I would come home the sooner for being press