“If you are not perfectly quiet and reasonable,” said he, “I shall leave you to your fate and return no more.”
Nothing is more singular in a state of great mental effervescence, than the rapidity with which our ideas succeed each other. At such times we seem to think more in minutes than at other times in hours. I felt how miserable a slave a man is, the moment he falls completely into the power of another. The wretch who stood before me was more vacant of human affections than any one I ever saw. Yet I was his creature, to be moulded as he pleased. A thousand injuries he could inflict upon me, for which neither the institutions of society nor the extraordinary endowments I derived from the stranger could afford a remedy. He might so torture my mind and baffle my wishes, as to kill in me every spark of lofty adventure and generous pride. My liberty might, for aught I knew, be for years at his disposal. I felt however that my best course was to regard him with contempt, and use him as I would a spade or a file, to execute my purposes, without suffering him to awaken my passions. I immediately grew more calm, and he perceived the revolution of my sentiments.
“You seem to wonder,” continued he, “that I did not keep my engagement with you? I pride myself upon being superior to the prejudices, by which other men are frightened, like children with a bugbear. I have therefore no rule but my interest: and I did not see how my interest bound me to keep my engagement with you.”
“And what became of the countess?”
“I neither know nor care. I suppose she stayed all night under the walls; I knew she durst not disturb the prison.”
I felt I had still emotions to suppress. I curbed my tongue, but they showed themselves in my eyes.
“How do you intend to dispose of me?”
“Keep you in close custody. I have got your thousand pounds; the next thing for me to take care of is, that I do not lose my place.”
“And for what purpose do you come to me now?”
“Why to tell you a secret, I have not quite determined what conduct to pursue, and therefore I came here that I might have a better opportunity of judging.”