one from my sight!"

The next day he sent me up by Mrs. Jewkes his proposals. They were seven
in number, and included the promise of an estate of L250 a year in Kent,
to be settled on my father; and a number of suits of rich clothing and
diamond rings were to be mine if I would consent to be his mistress.

My answer was that my parents and their daughter would much rather
choose to starve in a ditch or rot in a noisome dungeon, than accept of
the fortune of a monarch upon such wicked terms.

Mrs. Jewkes now tells me he is exceedingly wroth, and that I must quit
the house, and may go home to my father and mother.

_Sunday night_. Well, my dear parents, here I am at an inn in a little
village. And Robin, the coachman, assures me he has orders to carry me
to you. O, that he may say truth and not deceive me again!

"I have proofs," said my master to Mrs. Jewkes, when I left the house,
"that her virtue is all her pride. Shall I rob her of that? No, let her
go, perverse and foolish as she is; but she deserves to go away
virtuous, and she shall."

I think I was loth to leave the house. Can you believe it? I felt
something so strange and my heart was so heavy.

_IV.--Virtue Triumphant--Pamela's Journal_

_Monday Morning, eleven o'clock._ We are just come in here, to the inn
kept by Mr. Jewkes's relations.

Just as I sat down, before setting out to pursue my journey, comes my
master's groom, all in a foam, man and horse, with a letter for me, as
follows:

"I find it in vain, my Pamela, to struggle against my affection for you,
and as I flatter myself you may be brought to _love_ me, I begin to
regret parting with you; but, God is my witness, from no dishonourable
motives, but the very contrary.

"You cannot imagine the obligation your return will lay me under to your
goodness, and if you are the generous Pamela I imagine you to be let me
see by your compliance the further excellency of your disposition. Spare
me, my dearest girl, the confusion of following you to your father's,
which I must do if you go on--for I find I cannot live without you, and
I must be--

"Yours, and only yours."

What, my dear parents, will you say to this letter? I am resolved to
return to my master, and am sending this to you by Thomas the coachman.

It was one o'clock when we reach'd my master's gate. Everybody was gone
to rest. But one of the helpers got the keys from Mrs. Jewkes, and