e
near the captain, nor see him, whatever came of it.

In the evening, therefore, a little before we went to bed, I pretended
to have altered my mind, and that I would not go to North Hall, but I
had a mind to go another way, but I told him I was afraid his business
would not permit him. He wanted to know where it was. I told him,
smiling, I would not tell him, lest it should oblige him to hinder his
business. He answered with the same temper, but with infinitely more
sincerity, that he had no business of so much consequence as to hinder
him going with me anywhere that I had a mind to go. "Yes," says I, "you
want to speak with the captain before he goes away." "Why, that's true,"
says he, "so I do," and paused awhile; and then added, "but I'll write a
note to a man that does business for me to go to him; 'tis only to get
some bills of loading signed, and he can do it." When I saw I had gained
my point, I seemed to hang back a little. "My dear," says I, "don't
hinder an hour's business for me; I can put it off for a week or two
rather than you shall do yourself any prejudice." "No, no," says he,
"you shall not put it off an hour for me, for I can do my business by
proxy with anybody but my wife." And then he took me in his arms and
kissed me. How did my blood flush up into my face when I reflected how
sincerely, how affectionately, this good-humoured gentleman embraced the
most cursed piece of hypocrisy that ever came into the arms of an honest
man! His was all tenderness, all kindness, and the utmost sincerity;
mine all grimace and deceit;--a piece of mere manage and framed conduct
to conceal a past life of wickedness, and prevent his discovering that
he had in his arms a she-devil, whose whole conversation for twenty-five
years had been black as hell, a complication of crime, and for which,
had he been let into it, he must have abhorred me and the very mention
of my name. But there was no help for me in it; all I had to satisfy
myself was that it was my business to be what I was, and conceal what I
had been; that all the satisfaction I could make him was to live
virtuously for the time to come, not being able to retrieve what had
been in time past; and this I resolved upon, though, had the great
temptation offered, as it did afterwards, I had reason to question my
stability. But of that hereafter.

After my husband had kindly thus given up his measures to mine, we
resolved to set out in the morning early. I told him t