re, as I thought, I have frighted the dear creature with the sight of
my four Hottentots, and I shall be a long time, I doubt, before I can
recover my lost ground. And then this cursed family at Harlowe-place
have made her out of humour with me, with herself, and with all the
world, but Miss Howe, who, no doubt, is continually adding difficulties
to my other difficulties.

I am very unwilling to have recourse to measures which these demons below
are continually urging me to take; because I am sure, that, at last, I
shall be brought to make her legally mine.

One complete trial over, and I think I will do her noble justice.

***

Well, Paul's gone--gone already--has all his lessons. A notable fellow!
--Lord W.'s necessary-man was Paul before he went to sea. A more
sensible rogue Paul than Joseph! Not such a pretender to piety neither
as the other. At what a price have I bought that Joseph! I believe I
must punish the rascal at last: but must let him marry first: then
(though that may be punishment enough) I shall punish two at once in the
man and his wife. And how richly does Betty deserve punishment for her
behaviour to my goddess!

But now I hear the rusty hinges of my beloved's door give me creaking
invitation. My heart creaks and throbs with respondent trepidations:
Whimsical enough though! for what relation has a lover's heart to a rusty
pair of hinges? But they are the hinges that open and shut the door of
my beloved's bed-chamber. Relation enough in that.

I hear not the door shut again. I shall receive her commands I hope
anon. What signifies her keeping me thus at a distance? she must be
mine, let me do or offer what I will. Courage whenever I assume, all is
over: for, should she think of escaping from hence, whither can she fly
to avoid me? Her parents will not receive her. Her uncles will not
entertain her. Her beloved Norton is in their direction, and cannot.
Miss Howe dare not. She has not one friend in town but me--is entirely a
stranger to the town. And what then is the matter with me, that I should
be thus unaccountably over-awed and tyrannized over by a dear creature
who want sonly to know how impossible it is that she should escape me, in
order to be as humble to me as she is to her persecuting relations!

Should I ever make the grand attempt, and fail, and should she hate me
for it, her hatred can be but temporary. She has already incurred the
censure of the world. She mu