 but, at taking
leave, I forc'd him (for he had sentiments enough to refuse it) to receive money
enough to buy a silver watch, that great article of subaltern finery, which he
at length accepted of, as a remembrance he was carefully to preserve of my
affections.
    And here, Madam, I ought, perhaps, to make you an apology for this minute
detail of things, that dwelt so strongly upon my memory, after so deep an
impression: but, besides that this intrigue bred one great revolution in my
life, which historical truth requires I should not sink from you, may I not
presume that so exalted a pleasure ought not to be ungratefully forgotten, or
suppress'd by me, because I found it in a character in low life; where, by the
bye, it is oftener met with, purer, and more unsophisticate, that among the
false, ridiculous refinements with which the great suffer themselves to be so
grossly cheated by their pride: the great! than whom there exist few amongst
those they call the vulgar, who are more ignorant of, or who cultivate less, the
art of living than they do; they, I say, who for ever mistake things the most
foreign of the nature of pleasure itself; whose capital favourite object is
enjoyment of beauty, wherever that rare invaluable gift is found, without
distinction of birth, or station.
    As love never had, so now revenge had no longer any share in my commerce
with this handsome youth. The sole pleasures of enjoyment were now the link I
held to him by: for though nature had done such great matters for him in his
outward form, and especially in that superb piece of furniture she had so
liberally enrich'd him with; though he was thus qualify'd to give the senses
their richest feast, still there was something more wanting to create in me, and
constitute the passion of love. Yet Will had very good qualities too; gentle,
tractable, and, above all, grateful; close, and secret, even to a fault: he
spoke, at any time, very little, but made it up emphatically with action; and,
to do him justice, he never gave me the least reason to complain, either of any
tendency to encroach upon me for the liberties I allow'd him, or of his
indiscretion in blabbing them. There is, then, a fatality in love, or have loved
him I must; for he was really a treasure, a bit for the BONNE BOUCHE of a
duchess; and, to say
