guish the hopes, the maybes of a lively
imagination. Death I had hailed as my only chance for deliverance; but,
while existence had still so many charms, and life promised happiness, I
shrunk from the icy arms of an unknown tyrant, though far more inviting
than those of the man, to whom I supposed myself bound without any other
alternative; and was content to linger a little longer, waiting for I
knew not what, rather than leave 'the warm precincts of the cheerful
day,' and all the unenjoyed affection of my nature.

"My present situation gave a new turn to my reflection; and I wondered
(now the film seemed to be withdrawn, that obscured the piercing
sight of reason) how I could, previously to the deciding outrage, have
considered myself as everlastingly united to vice and folly! 'Had an
evil genius cast a spell at my birth; or a demon stalked out of
chaos, to perplex my understanding, and enchain my will, with delusive
prejudices?'

"I pursued this train of thinking; it led me out of myself, to expatiate
on the misery peculiar to my sex. 'Are not,' I thought, 'the despots for
ever stigmatized, who, in the wantonness of power, commanded even the
most atrocious criminals to be chained to dead bodies? though surely
those laws are much more inhuman, which forge adamantine fetters to bind
minds together, that never can mingle in social communion! What
indeed can equal the wretchedness of that state, in which there is no
alternative, but to extinguish the affections, or encounter infamy?'"

CHAPTER 12

"TOWARDS midnight Mr. Venables entered my chamber; and, with calm
audacity preparing to go to bed, he bade me make haste, 'for that was
the best place for husbands and wives to end their differences. He had
been drinking plentifully to aid his courage.

"I did not at first deign to reply. But perceiving that he affected to
take my silence for consent, I told him that, 'If he would not go to
another bed, or allow me, I should sit up in my study all night.' He
attempted to pull me into the chamber, half joking. But I resisted; and,
as he had determined not to give me any reason for saying that he used
violence, after a few more efforts, he retired, cursing my obstinacy, to
bed.

"I sat musing some time longer; then, throwing my cloak around me,
prepared for sleep on a sopha. And, so fortunate seemed my deliverance,
so sacred the pleasure of being thus wrapped up in myself, that I slept
profoundly, and woke with a