The little hypocrite, who knows not a soul in this town, [I thought I was sure of her at any time,] such an unexperienced traitress—­giving me hope too, in her first billet, that her expectation of the family-reconciliation would withhold her from taking such a step as this—­curse upon her contrivances!—­I thought, that it was owing to her bashfulness, to her modesty, that, after a few innocent freedoms, she could not look me in the face; when, all the while, she was impudently [yes, I say, impudently, though she be Clarissa Harlowe] contriving to rob me of the dearest property I had ever purchased—­purchased by a painful servitude of many months; fighting through the wild-beasts of her family for her, and combating with a wind-mill virtue, which hath cost me millions of perjuries only to attempt; and which now, with its damn’d air-fans, has tost me a mile and a half beyond hope!—­And this, just as I had arrived within view of the consummation of all my wishes!

O Devil of Love!  God of Love no more—­how have I deserved this of thee!—­Never before the friend of frozen virtue?—­Powerless demon, for powerless thou must be, if thou meanedest not to frustrate my hopes; who shall henceforth kneel at thy altars!—­May every enterprising heart abhor, despise, execrate, renounce thee, as I do!—­But, O Belford, Belford, what signifies cursing now!

***

How she could effect this her wicked escape is my astonishment; the whole sisterhood having charge of her;—­for, as yet, I have not had patience enough to inquire into the particulars, nor to let a soul of them approach me.

Of this I am sure, or I had not brought her hither, there is not a creature belonging to this house, that could be corrupted either by virtue or remorse:  the highest joy every infernal nymph, of this worse than infernal habitation, could have known, would have been to reduce this proud beauty to her own level.—­And as to my villain, who also had charge of her, he is such a seasoned varlet, that he delights in mischief for the sake of it:  no bribe could seduce him to betray his trust, were there but wickedness in it!—­’Tis well, however, he was out of my way when the cursed news was imparted to me!—­Gone, the villain! in quest of her:  not to return, nor to see my face [so it seems he declared] till he has heard some tidings of her; and all the out-of-place varlets of his numerous acquaintance are summoned and employed in the same business.

To what purpose brought I this angel (angel I must yet call her) to this hellish house?—­And was I not meditating to do her deserved honour?  By my soul, Belford, I was resolved—­but thou knowest what I had conditionally resolved—­And now, who can tell into what hands she may have fallen!

I am mad, stark mad, by Jupiter, at the thoughts of this!—­Unprovided, destitute, unacquainted—­some villain, worse than myself, who adores her not as I adore her, may have seized her, and taken advantage of her distress!—­Let me perish, Belford, if a whole hecatomb of innocents, as the little plagues are called, shall atone for the broken promises and wicked artifices of this cruel creature!