tion was properly adapted for the theme, began to ply her with
all the elocution of love. In order to elevate his own spirits to
that pitch of resolution which his scheme required, he drank two whole
bottles of burgundy, which inflamed his passion to such a degree, that
he found himself capable of undertaking and perpetrating any scheme for
the gratification of his desire.

Emilia, warmed by so many concurring incentives, in favour of the man
she loved, abated considerably of her wonted reserve, listened to his
protestations with undissembled pleasure, and, in the confidence of her
satisfaction, even owned him absolute master of her affections. Ravished
with this confession, he now deemed himself on the brink of reaping the
delicious fruits of his art and assiduity; and the morning being already
pretty far advanced, assented with rapture to the first proposal she
made of retiring to her lodgings. The blinds of the chariot being pulled
up, he took advantage of the favourable situation of her thoughts;
and, on pretence of being whimsical, in consequence of the wine he had
swallowed, clasped her in his arms, and imprinted a thousand kisses
on her pouting lips, a freedom which she pardoned as the privilege of
intoxication. While he thus indulged himself with impunity, the carriage
halted, and Pipes opening the door, his master handed her into the
passage, before she perceived that it was not her uncle's house at which
they had alighted.

Alarmed at this discovery, she, with some confusion, desired to know his
reason for conducting her to a strange place at these hours. But he made
no reply, until he had led her into an apartment, when he gave her to
understand, that, as her uncle's family must be disturbed by her going
thither so late in the night, and the streets near Temple-bar were
infested by a multitude of robbers and cut-throats, he had ordered his
coachman to halt at this house, which was kept by a relation of his, a
mighty good sort of a gentlewoman, who would be proud of an opportunity
to accommodate a person for whom he was known to entertain such
tenderness and esteem.

Emilia had too much penetration to be imposed upon by this plausible
pretext. In spite of her partiality for Peregrine, which had never been
inflamed to such a pitch of complacency before, she comprehended his
whole plan in a twinkling. Though her blood boiled with indignation, she
thanked him with an affected air of serenity for his kind concer