It was the discomposure of Mrs. Munden's mind which alone hindered her from interrupting him during the former part of his speech; but the close of it, joined with the action which accompanied it, obliged her to collect all her scattered spirits; and flying to the other end of the room, in order to avoid his grasp, 'Forbear, my lord!' said she: 'know, I despise your offers; and set my virtue at a much higher rate than all the advantages you, or the whole world, would give in exchange.'
Lord —— finding he had to do with a mistress of uncommon spirit, thought best to alter the manner of his addresses to her; and approaching her with an air much more humble and submissive than he had hitherto done, 'How I adore,' cried he, 'this noble disinterestedness in you! you will grant nothing but to love alone—be it so: your beauty is, indeed, above all other price. Let your husband reap all the advantages, and let it be yours to have the pleasure, like Heaven, to save from despair the man who cannot live without you.'
Perceiving, or at least imagining he perceived, some abatement in the fierceness of her eyes, on the change of his deportment, he persisted in it—he even threw himself on his knees before her; took hold of her hands, bathed them alternately with tears, then dried them with his kisses: in a word, he omitted nothing that the most passionate love, resolute to accomplish it's gratification, could suggest to soften her into compliance.
At another time, how would the vanity of this lady have been elated to see a person of such high consideration in the world thus prostrate at her feet! but at this, the reflection how much she was in his power, and the uncertainty how far he might exert that power, put to silence all the dictates of her pride, and rendered her, in reality, much more in awe of him, than he affected to be of her: she turned her eyes continually towards the door, in hopes of seeing Mr. Munden enter; and never had she wished for his presence with the impatience she now did.
The noble lord equally dreaded his return; and finding the replies she made to his pressures somewhat more moderate than they had been on the first opening his suit, flattered himself that a very little compulsion would compleat the work: he therefore resolved to dally no longer; and having ushered in his design with a prelude of some warm kisses and embraces, was about to draw her into another room.
She struggled with all her might; but her efforts that way being in vain, she shrieked, and called aloud for help. This a little shocked him; he let her go: 'What do you mean, Madam?' said he. 'Would you expose yourself and me to the ridicule of my servants?'—'I will expose myself to any thing,' answered she, 'rather than to the ruin and everlasting infamy your lordship is preparing for me!'
'Call not by so harsh a name,' cried he, 'the effects of the most tender passion that ever was: by heavens, I love you more than life! nay, life without you is not worth the keeping.' Speaking these words, he was about to lay hold of her again; and her cries having brought no body to her assistance, she must infallibly have been lost, if her better angel had not in that instant directed her eyes to a bell which hung in the pannel of the wainscot just behind the door of the room into which he was forcing her; she snatched the handle, and rung it with such vehemence that it resounded through the house.
This action made him release her with a kind of indignant fling; and a servant immediately coming up, 'I believe,' said she to him, 'my servant is below; pray order him to call me a chair this moment.' The peer, not often accustomed to such rebuffs, was so much confounded at the strength of her resolution, that he had not power to utter one word; and she, fearing another assault, ran to the door, which the footman hastily shut after him; and having opened it, 'Your lordship,' said she, 'has used me in a manner neither worthy of yourself nor me; I leave you to blush at the remembrance.'
She waited not to hear what reply he would have made, but flew down stairs into the hall; where a chair being presently brought, she threw herself into it, extremely disconcerted in her dress as well as mind.