But what a whirlwind does she raise in my soul by her proud contempts of me!  Never, never, was mortal man’s pride so mortified!  How does she sink me, even in my own eyes!—­’Her heart sincerely repulses me, she says, for my meanness!’—­Yet she intends to reap the benefit of what she calls so!—­Curse upon her haughtiness, and her meanness, at the same time!—­Her haughtiness to me, and her meanness to her own relations; more unworthy of kindred with her, than I can be, or I am mean indeed.

Yet who but must admire, who but must adore her; Oh! that cursed, cursed house!  But for the women of that!—­Then their d——­d potions!  But for those, had her unimpaired intellects, and the majesty of her virtue, saved her, as once it did by her humble eloquence,* another time by her terrifying menaces against her own life.**

* In the fire-scene, Vol.  V. Letter XVI. ** Vol.  VI.  Letter XXXVI. in the pen-knife-scene.

Yet in both these to find her power over me, and my love for her, and to hate, to despise, and to refuse me!—­She might have done this with some show of justice, had the last-intended violation been perpetrated:—­but to go away conqueress and triumphant in every light!—­Well may she despise me for suffering her to do so.

She left me low and mean indeed!—­And the impression holds with her.—­I could tear my flesh, that I gave her not cause—­that I humbled her not indeed;—­or that I staid not in town to attend her motions instead of Lord M.’s, till I could have exalted myself, by giving to myself a wife superior to all trial, to all temptation.

I will venture one more letter to her, however; and if that don’t do, or procure me an answer, then will I endeavour to see her, let what will be the consequence.  If she get out of my way, I will do some noble mischief to the vixen girl whom she most loves, and then quit the kingdom for ever.

And now, Jack, since thy hand is in at communicating the contents of private letters, tell her this, if thou wilt.  And add to it, That if she abandon me, god will:  and what then will be the fate of

Her
Lovelace.

LETTER LXXVIII

Mr. Lovelace, to John Belford, ESQ. [In answer to letter LXV.  Of this volume.] Monday, Aug. 7.

And so you have actually delivered to the fair implacable extracts of letters written in the confidence of friendship!  Take care—­take care, Belford—­I do indeed love you better than I love any man in the world:  but this is a very delicate point.  The matter is grown very serious to me.  My heart is bent upon having her.  And have her I will, though I marry her in the agonies of death.