And now what thinkest thou must become of the lady, whom LOVE itself gives up, and CONSCIENCE cannot plead for?
LETTER V
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. SUNDAY AFTERNOON.
O Belford! what a hair’s-breadth escape have I had!—Such a one, that I tremble between terror and joy, at the thought of what might have happened, and did not.
What a perverse girl is this, to contend with her fate; yet has reason to think, that her very stars fight against her! I am the luckiest of me!—But my breath almost fails me, when I reflect upon what a slender thread my destiny hung.
But not to keep thee in suspense; I have, within this half-hour, obtained possession of the expected letter from Miss Howe—and by such an accident! But here, with the former, I dispatch this; thy messenger waiting.
LETTER VI
MR. LOVELACE [IN CONTINUATION.]
Thus it was—My charmer accompanied Mrs. Moore again to church this afternoon. I had been in very earnest, in the first place, to obtain her company at dinner: but in vain. According to what she had said to Mrs. Moore,* I was too considerable to her to be allowed that favour. In the next place, I besought her to favour me, after dinner, with another garden-walk. But she would again go to church. And what reason have I to rejoice that she did!
* See Letter III. of this volume.