All that he further said at this time was, with a negligent, yet a determined air—­“Well, Pamela, don’t be doubtful of my honour.  You know how much I love you.  But, one day or other I shall gratify this lady’s curiosity, and bring her to pay you a visit, and you shall see you need not be ashamed of her acquaintance.”—­“Whenever you please, Sir,” was all I cared to say farther; for I saw he was upon the catch, and looked steadfastly upon me whenever I moved my lips; and I am not a finished hypocrite, and he can read the lines of one’s face, and the motions of one’s heart, I think.

I am sure mine is a very uneasy one.  But till I reflected, and weighed well the matter, it was worse; and my natural imperfection of this sort made me see a necessity to be more watchful over myself, and to doubt my own prudence.  And thus I reasoned when he withdrew: 

“Here,” thought I, “I have had a greater proportion of happiness without alloy, fallen to my share, than any of my sex; and I ought to be prepared for some trials.

“’Tis true, this is of the sorest kind:  ’tis worse than death itself to me, who had an opinion of the dear man’s reformation, and prided myself not a little on that account.  So that the blow is full upon my sore place.  ’Tis on the side I could be the most easily penetrated.  But Achilles could be touched only in his heel; and if he was to die by an enemy’s hands, must not the arrow find out that only vulnerable place?  My jealousy is that place with me, as your ladyship observes; but it is seated deeper than the heel:  it is in my heart.  The barbed dart has found that out, and there it sticks up to the very feathers.

“Yet,” thought I, “I will take care, that I do not exasperate him by upbraidings, when I should try to move him by patience and forbearance.  For the breach of his duty cannot warrant the neglect of mine.  My business is to reclaim, and not to provoke.  And when, if it please God, this storm shall be over-blown, let me not, by my present behaviour, leave any room for heart-burnings; but, like a skilful surgeon, so heal the wound to the bottom, though the operation be painful, that it may not fester, and break out again with fresh violence, on future misunderstandings, if any shall happen.

“Well, but,” thought I, “let the worst come to the worst, he perhaps may be so good as to permit me to pass the remainder of my days with my dear Billy, in Kent, with my father and mother; and so, when I cannot rejoice in possession of a virtuous husband, I shall be employed in praying for him, and enjoy a two-fold happiness, that of doing my own duty to my dear baby—­a pleasing entertainment this! and that of comforting my worthy parents, and being comforted by them—­a no small consolation!  And who knows, but I may be permitted to steal a visit now-and-then to dear Lady Davers, and be called Sister, and be deemed a faultless sister too?” But remember, my dear lady, that if ever it comes to this, I will not bear, that, for my sake, you shall, with too much asperity, blame your brother; for I will be ingenious to find excuses or extenuations for him; and I will now-and-then, in some disguised habit, steal the pleasure of seeing him and his happier Countess; and give him, with a silent tear, my blessing for the good I and mine have reaped at his hands.