or the sake of a
paltry fee, undertakes to whiten a black cause, and to defend it against
one he knows to be good, do the very same thing as Dorcas? And are they
not both every whit as culpable? Yet the one shall be dubbed a hero, the
other called an admirable fellow, and be contended for by every client,
and his double-tongued abilities shall carry him through all the high
preferments of the law with reputation and applause.

Well, but what shall be done, since the lady is so much determined on
removing!--Is there no way to oblige her, and yet to make the very act
subservient to my other views? I fancy such a way may be found out.

I will study for it----

Suppose I suffer her to make an escape? Her heart is in it. If she
effect it, the triumph she will have over me upon it will be a
counterbalance for all she has suffered.

I will oblige her if I can.

LETTER XXVI

MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.

Tired with a succession of fatiguing days and sleepless nights, and with
contemplating the precarious situation I stand in with my beloved, I fell
into a profound reverie; which brought on sleep; and that produced a
dream; a fortunate dream; which, as I imagine, will afford my working
mind the means to effect the obliging double purpose my heart is now once
more set upon.

What, as I have often contemplated, is the enjoyment of the finest woman
in the world, to the contrivance, the bustle, the surprises, and at last
the happy conclusion of a well-laid plot!--The charming round-abouts, to
come to the nearest way home;--the doubts; the apprehensions; the
heart-achings; the meditated triumphs--these are the joys that make the
blessing dear.--For all the rest, what is it?--What but to find an angel
in imagination dwindled down to a woman in fact?----But to my dream----

Methought it was about nine on Wednesday morning that a chariot, with a
dowager's arms upon the doors, and in it a grave matronly lady [not
unlike mother H. in the face; but, in her heart, Oh! how unlike!] stopped
at a grocer's shop, about ten doors on the other side of the way, in
order to buy some groceries: and methought Dorcas, having been out to see
if the coast were clear for her lady's flight, and if a coach were to be
got near the place, espied the chariot with the dowager's arms, and this
matronly lady: and what, methought, did Dorcas, that subtle traitress,
do, but whip up to the old matronly lady, and lifting up her voice, say,