s surely
something supernatural! he never failed to whisper some insidious
compliment or tale of love, exquisitely suited to the emotions of her
soul. Thus was her heart insensibly subdued; though more than half his
work was still undone; for, at all times, she disclosed such purity of
sentiment, such inviolable attachment to religion and virtue, and seemed
so averse to all sorts of inflammatory discourse, that he durst not
presume upon the footing he had gained in her affection, to explain the
baseness of his desire; he therefore applied to another of her passions,
that proved the bane of her virtue. This was her timidity, which at
first being constitutional, was afterwards increased by the circumstances
of her education, and now aggravated by the artful conversation of
Fathom, which he chequered with dismal stories of omens, portents,
prophecies, and apparitions, delivered upon such unquestionable
testimony, and with such marks of conviction, as captivated the belief of
the devoted Celinda, and filled her imagination with unceasing terrors.

In vain she strove to dispel those frightful ideas, and avoid such topics
of discourse for the future. The more she endeavoured to banish them,
the more troublesome they became; and such was her infatuation, that as
her terrors increased, her thirst after that sort of knowledge was
augmented. Many sleepless nights did she pass amidst those horrors of
fancy, starting at every noise, and sweating with dreary apprehension,
yet ashamed to own her fears, or solicit the comfort of a bedfellow, lest
she should incur the ridicule and censure of her father's wife; and what
rendered this disposition the more irksome, was the solitary situation of
her chamber, that stood at the end of a long gallery scarce within
hearing of any other inhabited part of the house.

All these circumstances had been duly weighed by our projector, who,
having prepared Celinda for his purpose, stole at midnight from his
apartment, which was in another storey, and approaching her door, there
uttered a piteous groan; then softly retired to his bed, in full
confidence of seeing next day the effect of this operation. Nor did his
arrow miss the mark. Poor Celinda's countenance gave such indications of
melancholy and dismay, that he could not omit asking the cause of her
disquiet, and she, at his earnest request, was prevailed upon to
communicate the dreadful salutation of the preceding night, which she
considere