 suffice to say, our
mutual passion was a perfect copy of that which had subsisted between me and my
dear lord W--m. It was jealous, melting and delicate, and checquered with little
accidents, which serve to animate and maintain the flame, in its first ardency
of rapture. When my lover was sick, I attended and nursed him with indefatigable
tenderness and care; and during an indisposition which I caught in the
performance of this agreeable office, he discharged the obligation with all the
warmth of sympathy and love.
    It was, however, judged necessary by the physicians, that I should use the
Bath-waters for the recovery of my health; and I set out for that place, glad of
a pretence to be absent from lord --, with whom I lived on very unhappy terms.
He had, about nine months after our marriage, desired that we might sleep in
separate beds, and gave a very whimsical reason for this proposal. He said, the
immensity of his love deprived him of the power of gratification, and that some
commerce with an object, to which his heart was not attached, might, by
diminishing the transports of his spirits, recompose his nerves, and enable him
to enjoy the fruits of his good fortune.
    You may be sure I made no objections to this plan, which was immediately put
in execution. He made his addresses to a nymph of Drury-lane, whose name (as he
told me) was Mrs. Rock. She made shift to extract some money from her patient;
but his infirmity was beyond the power of her art; though she made some mischief
between us; and I communicated my suspicion to duke H--, who intended to have
expostulated with her upon the subject; but she got intimation of his design,
and saved him the trouble, by a precipitate retreat.
    After my return from the Bath, where Mr. S. and I had lived happily, until
we were interrupted by the arrival of my husband, his lordship expressed an
inclination to be my bedfellow again; but in this particular I desired to be
excused: for though I would not be the first to propose the separation, which,
though usual in other countries, is contrary to the custom of England, being
unwilling to furnish the least handle for censure, as my character was still
unblemished; yet, when the proposal came from himself, I thought myself intitled
to refuse a re-union, to which I accordingly objected.
    This opposition produced a quarrel, which rose to a state of perpetual
animosity; so that we began
