being a prey to the
same tenderness which ruined her.

"He addressed her with all the specious arts which vice could invent
to seduce innocence; his respect, his esteem, seemed equal to his
passion; he talked of honor, of the delight of an union where the
tender affections alone were consulted; wished for her father's
return, to ask her of him in marriage; pretended to count impatiently
the hours of his absence, which delayed his happiness: he even
prevailed on her to write her father an account of his addresses.

"New to love, my Sophia's young heart too easily gave way to the
soft impression; she loved, she idolized this most base of mankind;
she would have thought it a kind of sacrilege to have had any will in
opposition to his.

"After some months of unremitted assiduity, her father being
expected in a few days, he dropped a hint, as if by accident, that he
wished his fortune less, that he might be the more certain he was loved
for himself alone; he blamed himself for this delicacy, but charged it
on excess of love; vowed he would rather die than injure her, yet
wished to be convinced her fondness was without reserve.

"Generous, disinterested, eager to prove the excess and sincerity of
her passion, she fell into the snare; she agreed to go off with him,
and live some time in a retirement where she was to see only himself,
after which he engaged to marry her publicly.

"He pretended extasies at this proof of affection, yet hesitated to
accept it; and, by piquing the generosity of her soul, which knew no
guile, and therefore suspected none, led her to insist on devoting
herself to wretchedness.

"In order, however, that this step might be as little known as
possible, as he pretended the utmost concern for that honor he was
contriving to destroy, it was agreed between them, that he should go
immediately to London, and that she should follow him, under pretence
of a visit to a relation at some distance; the greatest difficulty was,
how to hide this design from me.

"She had never before concealed a thought from her beloved Fanny;
nor could he now have prevailed on her to deceive me, had he not
artfully perswaded her I was myself in love with him; and that,
therefore, it would be cruel, as well as imprudent, to trust me with
the secret.

"Nothing shews so strongly the power of love, in absorbing every
faculty of the soul, as my dear Sophia's being prevailed on to use art
with the friend most dear to her on e