enter upon the requisite points for yourself. It is
hard upon you; but indeed you must. Your situation requires it. What
room for delicacy now?--Or would you have me write to him? yet that would
be the same thing as if you were to write yourself. Yet write you
should, I think, if you cannot speak. But speaking is certainly best:
for words leave no traces; they pass as breath; and mingle with air; and
may be explained with latitude. But the pen is a witness on record.

I know the gentleness of your spirit; I know the laudable pride of your
heart; and the just notion you have of the dignity of our sex in these
delicate points. But once more, all this in nothing now: your honour is
concerned that the dignity I speak of should not be stood upon.

'Mr. Lovelace,' would I say; yet hate the foolish fellow for his low, his
stupid pride, in wishing to triumph over the dignity of his own wife;--
'I am by your means deprived of every friend I have in the world. In
what light am I to look upon you? I have well considered every thing.
You have made some people, much against my liking, think me a wife:
others know I am not married; nor do I desire any body should believe I
am: Do you think your being here in the same house with me can be to my
reputation? You talked to me of Mrs. Fretchville's house.' This will
bring him to renew his last discourse on the subject, if he does not
revive it of himlsef. 'If Mrs. Fretchville knows not her own mind, what
is her house to me? You talked of bringing up your cousin Montague to
bear me company: if my brother's schemes be your pretence for not going
yourself to fetch her, you can write to her. I insist upon bringing
these two points to an issue: off or on ought to be indifferent to me, if
so to them.'

Such a declaration must bring all forward. There are twenty ways, my dear,
that you would find out for another in your circumstances. He will
disdain, from his native insolence, to have it thought he has any body to
consult. Well then, will he not be obliged to declare himself? And if
he does, no delays on your side, I beseech you. Give him the day. Let
it be a short one. It would be derogating from your own merit, not to be
so explicit as he ought to be, to seem but to doubt his meaning; and to
wait for that explanation for which I should ever despise him, if he
makes it necessary. Twice already have you, my dear, if not oftener
modesty'd away such opportunities as you oug