r father's house? Why will she deny me
her company, till she makes me lose my patience, and lay myself open
to her resentment? And why, when she is offended, does she carry her
indignation to the utmost length that a scornful beauty, in the very
height of her power and pride, can go?

Is it prudent, thinkest thou, in her circumstances, to tell me,
repeatedly to tell me, 'That she is every hour more and more
dissatisfied with herself and me? That I am not one who improve upon her
in my conversation and address?' [Couldst thou, Jack, bear this from
a captive!] 'That she shall not be easy while she is with me? That she
knows better than to value herself upon my volubility? That if I think
she deserves the compliments I make her, I may pride myself in those
arts, by which I have made a fool of so extraordinary a person? That
she shall never forgive herself for meeting me, nor me for seducing her
away?' [Her very words.] 'That her regrets increase instead of diminish?
That she will take care of herself; and, since her friends thing it
not worth while to pursue her, she will be left to her own care? That I
shall make Mrs. Sorlings's house more agreeable by my absence?--And go
to Berks, to town, or wherever I will,' [to the devil, I suppose,] 'with
all her heart?'

The impolitic charmer!--To a temper so vindictive as she thins mine! To
a free-liver, as she believes me to be, who has her in his power! I
was before, as thou knowest, balancing; now this scale, now that, the
heaviest. I only waited to see how her will would work, how mine would
lead me on. Thou seest what bias here takes--And wilt thou doubt
that mine will be determined by it? Were not her faults, before this,
numerous enough? Why will she put me upon looking back?

I will sit down to argue with myself by-and-by, and thou shalt be
acquainted with the result.

If thou didst but know, if thou hadst but beheld, what an abject slave
she made me look like!--I had given myself high airs, as she called
them: but they were airs that shewed my love for her: that shewed
I could not live out of her company. But she took me down with a
vengeance! She made me look about me. So much advantage had she over me;
such severe turns upon me; by my soul, Jack, I had hardly a word to say
for myself. I am ashamed to tell thee what a poor creature she made me
look like! But I could have told her something that would have humbled
her pretty pride at the instant, had she been in a prop