But, as to her pockets, I think my mind hankers after them, as the less mischievous attempt.  But they cannot hold all the letters I should wish to see.  And yet a woman’s pockets are half as deep as she is high.  Tied round the sweet levities, I presume, as ballast-bags, lest the wind, as they move with full sail, from whale-ribbed canvass, should blow away the gypsies.

[He then, in apprehension that something is meditating between the two
   ladies, or that something may be set on foot to get Miss Harlowe out
   of his hands, relates several of his contrivances, and boasts of his
   instructions given in writing to Dorcas, and to his servant Will. 
   Summers; and says, that he has provided against every possible
   accident, even to bring her back if she should escape, or in case she
   should go abroad, and then refuse to return; and hopes so to manage,
   as that, should he make an attempt, whether he succeeded in it or not,
   he may have a pretence to detain her.]

He then proceeds as follows: 

I have ordered Dorcas to cultivate by all means her lady’s favour; to lament her incapacity as to writing and reading; to shew letters to her lady, as from pretended country relations; to beg her advice how to answer them, and to get them answered; and to be always aiming at scrawling with a pen, lest inky fingers should give suspicion.  I have moreover given the wench an ivory-leafed pocket-book, with a silver pencil, that she may make memoranda on occasion.

And, let me tell thee, that the lady has already (at Mrs. Sinclair’s motion) removed her clothes out of the trunks they came in, into an ample mahogany repository, where they will lie at full length, and which has drawers in it for linen.  A repository, that used to hold the riches suits which some of the nymphs put on, when they are to be dressed out, to captivate, or to ape quality.  For many a countess, thou knowest, has our mother equipped; nay, two or three duchesses, who live upon quality-terms with their lords.  But this to such as will come up to her price, and can make an appearance like quality themselves on the occasion:  for the reputation of persons of birth must not lie at the mercy of every under-degreed sinner.

A master-key, which will open every lock in this chest, is put into Dorcas’s hands; and she is to take care, when she searches for papers, before she removes any thing, to observe how it lies, that she may replace all to a hair.  Sally and Polly can occasionally help to transcribe.  Slow and sure with such an Argus-eyed charmer must be all my movements.

It is impossible that one so young and so inexperienced as she is can have all her caution from herself; the behaviour of the women so unexceptionable; no revellings, no company ever admitted into this inner-house; all genteel, quiet, and easy in it; the nymphs well-bred, and well-read; her first disgusts to the old one got over.—­It must be Miss Howe, therefore, [who once was in danger of being taken in by one of our class, by honest Sir George Colmar, as thou hast heard,] that makes my progress difficult.