 lodgings in Poland-street,
retained lawyers, and commenced a suit for separation against my lord. I
communicated the reasons of my elopement to my father, who was shocked and
surprised at my conduct, which he condemned with expressions of sorrow and
resentment. But the step was taken; nor did I repent of what I had done, except
on his account.
    In the morning after my arrival at London, I waited upon the
lord-chief-justice, to whom I complained of the usage I had received from my
lord, whose temper was teazing, tiresome, and intolerably capricious. His
behaviour was a strange compound of madness and folly, seasoned with a small
proportion of sense: no wonder then that I, who am hot and hasty, should be
wretched, under the persecution of such a perverse humourist, who used to
terrify me, and scold at me the whole night without intermission, and shake my
pillow from time to time, that I might not sleep, while he tormented me with his
disagreeable expostulations. I have been often frightened almost out of my
senses, at seeing him convulsed by the most unreasonable passion; and chagrined
to the highest degree of disgust, to find (by repeated observation) his
disposition so preposterous, that his satisfaction and displeasure never
depended upon the cause he had to be satisfied or disobliged; but, on the
contrary, when he had most reason to be pleased, he was always most
discontented, and very often in good humour, when he had reason enough for
vexation.
    While I lived in Poland-street, I was engaged with lawyers, and so often
visited by my father, that I could not dedicate my whole time, as usual, to my
lover; nor was it convenient that he should be seen in my company: he therefore
took a small house at Camberwell, whither I went as often as I had an
opportunity; and maintained the correspondence with such eagerness and industry,
that although I was six months gone with child, I have often, by myself, set out
for his habitation, in an hackney-coach, at eleven o'clock at night, and
returned by six in the morning, that I might be in my own bed, when my father
came to see me; for I concealed my amour, as well as the effects of it, from his
knowledge, and frequently took water from the Bridge, that my motions might not
be discovered. Nothing but the most passionate love could have supported my
spirits under such vicissitudes of fatigue, or enabled my admirer to spend whole
days by himself, in
