, I took my Leave; judging, it could be no
worse than some little domestick Misunderstanding, occasion'd, perhaps, by
a disagreeable Command on the Side of the Husband, or some Contradiction on
the Side of the Wife. But my Man, who is very intimate with all the
Servants, has since let me into the Secret. It seems, there is a strange
Union of Souls between these two Ladies; from what Affinity of Disposition,
or mysterious Impulse, is a Secret only known to Nature and themselves.
They love and hate alike; their Sympathies and Antipathies are the same;
and all Joys are tasteless to the One, without the Company and
Participation of the Other. Their Affection is of that tender, that
delicate Nature, that the smallest Jealousie, the least Unkindness blasts
it. It happen'd one Day, that _Clarissa_ was more than commonly civil to
her Husband: There was something past between them, that look'd like
Fondness, and this in the Presence of _Drusilla_: Who can express the
Passions that struggled in the Female Rival's Soul? Despair, Rage,
Jealousie, and Anguish at once possess'd her; and it was now Time to retire
to Sleep; the Lady with her Husband withdrew to Bed, and the jealous Friend
likewise committed her self to her Pillow, tho' not to Rest. Her Soul was
busied with the bitter Reflexion of what had past, and what further
Endearments might be practis'd. Unable to compose her self, she resolves to
rise, and pretends Sickness: _Clarissa_ is disturbed from the Embraces of
her Husband; nor is suffer'd to go back to the Bed of Wedlock, till she has
promis'd her disgusted Friend, by a forc'd Indifference to restrain the
Liberties of the inamour'd _Gellius_.

The learned Times, I find, were not unacquainted with these _Female
Intimacies_: And by the Names they affix'd to the Persons practising them,
which I shall forbear to mention, 'tis plain they put none of the best
Constructions on their Familiarities.

_Plato_, I remember, offers at a Reason in Nature for such Conversations.
He tells us, that at first Mankind were made with _Two_ Heads, _Four_ Arms,
_Four_ Legs, and so every Way double: that of these, there were _three_
Sorts; some, double Men; some, double Women; and some Hermaphrodites.
_Jupiter_, upon an Offence committed, split them all into _Two's_; from
whence arises in Mankind that Desire of a Companion, as his other half to
perfect his Being. The Consequence of this Division was, that they, who in
their original State were