g lady no hope of that; for she put it to me. She
resented--kept up, and was kept up. A little innocent contrivance was
necessary to get her out. But no rape in the case, I assure you, Joseph.
She loved me--I loved her. Indeed, when I got her to the inn, I asked
her no question. It is cruel to ask a modest woman for her consent. It
is creating difficulties to both. Had not her friends been officious, I
had been constant and faithful to her to this day, as far as I know--for
then I had not known my angel.

I went not abroad upon her account. She loved me too well to have
appeared against me; she refused to sign a paper they had drawn up for
her, to found a prosecution upon; and the brutal creatures would not
permit the mid-wife's assistance, till her life was in danger; and, I
believe, to this her death was owing.

I went into mourning for her, though abroad at the time. A distinction I
have ever paid to those worthy creatures who dies in childbed by me.

I was ever nice in my loves.--These were the rules I laid down to myself
on my entrance into active life:--To set the mother above want, if her
friends were cruel, and if I could not get her a husband worthy of her:
to shun common women--a piece of justice I owed to innocent ladies, as
well as to myself: to marry off a former mistress, if possible, before
I took to a new one: to maintain a lady handsomely in her lying-in: to
provide for the little-one, if it lived, according to the degree of its
mother: to go into mourning for the mother, if she died. And the promise
of this was a great comfort to the pretty dears, as they grew near their
times.

All my errors, all my expenses, have been with and upon women. So I
could acquit my conscience (acting thus honourably by them) as well as
my discretion as to point of fortune.

All men love women--and find me a man of more honour, in these points,
if you can, Joseph.

No wonder the sex love me as they do!

But now I am strictly virtuous. I am reformed. So I have been for a
long time, resolving to marry as soon as I can prevail upon the most
admirable of women to have me. I think of nobody else--it is impossible
I should. I have spared very pretty girls for her sake. Very true,
Joseph! So set your honest heart at rest--You see the pains I take to
satisfy your qualms.

But, as to Miss Betterton--no rape in the case, I repeat: rapes are
unnatural things, and more are than are imagined, Joseph. I should be
loth to be put