myself: and then, although you shall be so kind as to imagine
that you have reason to make me a compliment, you will have much more
to pride yourself in those arts which have made so extraordinary a young
creature so great a fool.

Really, my dear, the man deserves not politer treatment.--And then has
he not made a fool, an egregious fool of me?--I am afraid he himself
thinks he has.

I am surprised! I am amazed, Madam, returned he, at so strange a turn
upon me!--I am very unhappy, that nothing I can do or say will give
you a good opinion of me!--Would to heaven that I knew what I can do to
obtain the honour of your confidence!

I told him, that I desired his absence, of all things. I saw not,
I said, that my friends thought it worth their while to give me
disturbance: therefore, if he would set out for London, or Berkshire, or
whither he pleased, it would be most agreeable to me, and most reputable
too.

He would do so, he said, he intended to do so, the moment I was in a
place to my liking--in a place convenient for me.

This, Sir, will be so, said I, when you are not here to break in upon
me, and make the apartments inconvenient.

He did not think this place safe, he replied; and as I intended not to
stay here, he had not been so solicitous, as otherwise he should have
been, to enjoin privacy to his servants, nor to Mrs. Greme at her
leaving me; that there were two or three gentlemen at the neighbourhood,
he said, with whose servants his gossiping fellows had scraped
acquaintance: so that he could not think of leaving me here unguarded
and unattended.--But fix upon any place in England where I could be
out of danger, and he would go to the furthermost part of the king's
dominions, if by doing so he could make me easy.

I told him plainly that I should never be in humour with myself for
meeting him; nor with him, for seducing me away: that my regrets
increased, instead of diminished: that my reputation was wounded: that
nothing I could do would now retrieve it: and that he must not wonder,
if I every hour grew more and more uneasy both with myself and him: that
upon the whole, I was willing to take care of myself; and when he had
left me, I should best know what to resolve upon, and whither to go.

He wished, he said, he were at liberty, without giving me offence, or
being thought to intend to infringe the articles I had stipulated and
insisted upon, to make one humble proposal to me. But the sacred regard
h