n answer to my incoherent inquiries, gained
intelligence, that she had left those apartments but a few days before
I took them; that she had there been delivered of a son, and was then
gone to reside in Caermarthen, her native county; though to what part,
the hostess could not tell. To Caermarthen I determined to go, and
accordingly the next morning commenced my journey; but all my search was
indeed fruitless!

"At last, overcome by fatigue, preyed on by a fever occasioned by my
repeated disappointments, and, to own the truth, not having money to
prosecute my search, having expended that left me by my father, I was
necessitated to retire to my habitation at Brighthelmstone, where
Deborah again obtained information of me, and again laid me under the
lash of her malignant power. Willingly would I have sought relief in a
formal separation; but that she refused with the most contemptuous
disdain, telling me I should never enjoy a portion of her wealth without
her. I would then have resigned all pretensions to her fortune; but she
started into phrensy, vowed she would follow me to the utmost extremity
of the globe, and sooner deprive herself of every comfort in life, than
leave me at liberty to renew an acquaintance with a woman I preferred to
herself. Finding it in vain to gain her accordance to my proposal, I
desisted from the attempt, and again commenced a search after Ellenor;
Deborah, like my evil genius, still following me from place to place,
till wearied, regardless of existence, and as the only means of
escaping from her, I again went to sea. The interest of my friends
gained me promotion; and fortune, by an influx of wealth during
seventeen years, has been willing, as far as her power extends, to make
me amends for the misery she has occasioned me in the loss of Ellenor,
the continued torments I endure from Deborah, and the unkind neglect of
my brother, whom I have seen but once since the death of my father.

"And here, Talton, I must apologize for my neglect to you. Your first
letter, informing me you had regained your property, I received a few
days preceding the discovery of my marriage with Deborah; but the
distraction of my mind at that time prevented me from answering it.
When I had in some degree regained my tranquillity, I wrote; but the
person to whose charge I intrusted my packet, nearly two years after
returned it, with the account that you were either dead, or had left the
island; and as during that ti