what you have acted by me; and that with a premeditation and contrivance
worthy only of that single heart which now, base as well as ungrateful as
thou art, seems to quake within thee.--And well may'st thou quake; well
may'st thou tremble, and falter, and hesitate, as thou dost, when thou
reflectest upon what I have suffered for thy sake, and upon the returns
thou hast made me!

By my soul, Belford, my whole frame was shaken: for not only her looks
and her action, but her voice, so solemn, was inexpressibly affecting:
and then my cursed guilt, and her innocence, and merit, and rank, and
superiority of talents, all stared me at that instant in the face so
formidably, that my present account, to which she unexpectedly called me,
seemed, as I then thought, to resemble that general one, to which we are
told we shall be summoned, when our conscience shall be our accuser.

But she had had time to collect all the powers of her eloquence. The
whole day probably in her intellects. And then I was the more
disappointed, as I had thought I could have gazed the dear creature into
confusion--but it is plain, that the sense she has of her wrongs sets
this matchless woman above all lesser, all weaker considerations.

My dear--my love--I--I--I never--no never--lips trembling, limbs quaking,
voice inward, hesitating, broken--never surely did miscreant look so like
a miscreant! while thus she proceeded, waving her snowy hand, with all
the graces of moving oratory.

I have no pride in the confusion visible in thy whole person. I have
been all the day praying for a composure, if I could not escape from this
vile house, that should once more enable me to look up to my destroyer
with the consciousness of an innocent sufferer. Thou seest me, since my
wrongs are beyond the power of words to express, thou seest me, calm
enough to wish, that thou may'st continue harassed by the workings of thy
own conscience, till effectual repentance take hold of thee, that so thou
may'st not forfeit all title to that mercy which thou hast not shown to
the poor creature now before thee, who had so well deserved to meet with
a faithful friend where she met with the worst of enemies.

But tell me, (for no doubt thou hast some scheme to pursue,) tell me,
since I am a prisoner, as I find, in the vilest of houses, and have not a
friend to protect or save me, what thou intendest shall become of the
remnant of a life not worth the keeping!--Tell me, if yet ther