To say the truth, I now felt no resentment; my firm resolution to
free myself from my ignoble thraldom, had absorbed the various emotions
which, during six years, had racked my soul. The duty pointed out by my
principles seemed clear; and not one tender feeling intruded to make me
swerve: The dislike which my husband had inspired was strong; but it only
led me to wish to avoid, to wish to let him drop out of my memory; there
was no misery, no torture that I would not deliberately have chosen,
rather than renew my lease of servitude.

"During the breakfast, he attempted to reason with me on the folly of
romantic sentiments; for this was the indiscriminate epithet he gave to
every mode of conduct or thinking superior to his own. He asserted, 'that
all the world were governed by their own interest; those who pretended to
be actuated by different motives, were only deeper knaves, or fools
crazed by books, who took for gospel all the rodomantade nonsense written
by men who knew nothing of the world. For his part, he thanked God, he
was no hypocrite; and, if he stretched a point sometimes, it was always
with an intention of paying every man his own.'

"He then artfully insinuated, 'that he daily expected a vessel to
arrive, a successful speculation, that would make him easy for the
present, and that he had several other schemes actually depending, that
could not fail. He had no doubt of becoming rich in a few years, though
he had been thrown back by some unlucky adventures at the setting out.'

"I mildly replied, 'That I wished he might not involve himself still
deeper.'

"He had no notion that I was governed by a decision of judgment, not to
be compared with a mere spurt of resentment. He knew not what it was to
feel indignation against vice, and often boasted of his placable temper,
and readiness to forgive injuries. True; for he only considered the being
deceived, as an effort of skill he had not guarded against; and then,
with a cant of candour, would observe, 'that he did not know how he
might himself have been tempted to act in the same circumstances.' And,
as his heart never opened to friendship, it never was wounded by
disappointment. Every new acquaintance he protested, it is true, was 'the
cleverest fellow in the world;' and he really thought so; till the
novelty of his conversation or manners ceased to have any effect on his
sluggish spirits. His respect for rank or fortune was more permanent,
though he chanced