to consider it, and do not stand in the way of your own Safety and
Prosperity; and to satisfy you that I am Sincere, added he, I here offer you
Five Hundred Pounds to make you some amends for the Freedoms I have taken with
you, which we shall look upon as some of the Follies of our Lives, which 'tis
hoped we may repent of.
    He spoke this in so much more moving Terms than it is possible for me to
express, that you may suppose as he held me above an Hour and Half in that
Discourse, so he answer'd all my Objections, and fortified his Discourse with
all the Arguments that humane Wit and Art could devise.
    I cannot say however, that any thing he said made Impression enough upon me,
so as to give me any thought of the Matter, till he told me at last very
plainly, that if I refus'd, he was sorry to add, that he could never go on with
me in that Station as we stood before; that tho' he lov'd me as well as ever,
and that I was as agreeable to him; yet the Sense of Virtue had not so forsaken
him as to suffer him to lye with a Woman that his Brother courted to make his
Wife; that if he took his Leave of me, with a denial from me in this Affair,
whatever he might do for me in the Point of Support, grounded on his first
Engagement of maintaining me, yet he would not have me be surpris'd, that he was
obliged to tell me, he could not allow himself to see me any more; and that
indeed I could not expect it of him.
    I received this last Part with some Tokens of Surprize and Disorder, and had
much ado, to avoid sinking down, for indeed I lov'd him to an Extravagance, not
easy to imagine; but he perceiv'd my Disorder, and entreated me to consider
seriously of it, assured me that it was the only way to preserve our mutual
Affection; that in this Station we might love as Friends, with the utmost
Passion, and with a love of Relation untainted, free from our own just
Reproaches, and free from other People's Suspicions: That he should ever
acknowledge his happiness owing to me; that he would be Debtor to me as long as
he liv'd, and would be paying that Debt as long as he had Breath: Thus he
wrought me up, in short, to a kind of Hesitation in the Matter; having the
Dangers on one