azard,
And make th' impossibility they fear.

But in the midst of my exultation, something, I know not what to call
it, checks my joys, and glooms over my brighter prospects: if it be not
conscience, it is wondrously like what I thought so, many, many years
ago.

Surely, Lovelace, methinks thou sayest, thy good motions are not gone
off already! Surely thou wilt not now at last be a villain to this lady!

I can't tell what to say to it. Why would not the dear creature accept
of me, when I so sincerely offered myself to her acceptance? Things
already appear with a very different face now I have got her here.
Already have our mother and her daughters been about me:--'Charming
lady! What a complexion! What eyes! What majesty in her person!--O
Mr. Lovelace, you are a happy man! You owe us such a lady!'--Then they
remind me of my revenge, and of my hatred to her whole family.

Sally was so struck with her, at first sight, that she broke out to me
in these lines of Dryden:--

----Fairer to be seen
Than the fair lily on the flow'ry green!
More fresh than May herself in blossoms new!

I sent to thy lodgings within half an hour after our arrival, to receive
thy congratulation upon it, but thou wert at Edgeware, it seems.

My beloved, who is charmingly amended, is retired to her constant
employment, writing. I must content myself with the same amusement, till
she shall be pleased to admit me to her presence: for already have I
given to every one her cue.

And, among the rest, who dost thou think is to be her maid
servant?--Deb. Butler.

Ah, Lovelace!

And Ah, Belford!--It can't be otherwise. But what dost think Deb's name
is to be? Why, Dorcas, Dorcas Wykes. And won't it be admirable, if,
either through fear, fright, or good liking, we can get my beloved to
accept of Dorcas Wykes for a bed-fellow?

In so many ways will it be now in my power to have the dear creature,
that I shall not know which of them to choose!

But here comes the widow with Dorcas Wykes in her hand, and I am to
introduce them both to my fair-one?

*****

So, the honest girl is accepted--of good parentage--but, through a
neglected education, plaguy illiterate: she can neither write, nor
read writing. A kinswoman of Mrs. Sinclair--could not therefore well be
refused, the widow in person recommending her; and the wench only taken
till her Hannah can come. What an advantage has an imposing or forward
nature over