MADAM,
I Thank you for publishing the letter signed Perdita: it was a prelude to my unhappy story, which I am desirous the world should know; yet for the sake of him, who in spite of all the wrongs he has done me will be ever dear to me, I shall disguise the names of persons and places.
The facts I relate will point out the guilty only to themselves; but they will display a character, which of all others is the most dangerous to the peace of families, and to which all my misfortunes are owing.
At sixteen I was taken from the boarding-school by my mother, to have my education finished by a commerce with the fashionable world; but I received much less improvement from those lessons of politeness than from the solid instructions of my father, who was a man of sense and learning, and who took pleasure in cultivating my mind.
As my fortune was very considerable, I soon had a sufficient number of admirers; and I thought myself extremely happy in being able to touch the heart of a young gentleman, who, even before he declared his passion, had engaged my tenderest affection.
He soon obtained my consent to demand me of my parents; his birth was at least equal to mine, his fortune superior, and his character unexceptionable: my parents therefore thought they disposed of me very happily by giving me to him.
A few weeks after our marriage my husband carried me to his country-seat; the beauty of the place, my taste for retirement, and the tender behaviour of the man I passionately loved, left me nothing to wish for, and I could have been content to spend my whole life in this delightful abode.
We had lived here near a year without my husband expressing the least inclination to return to town, when I took it into my head to surprise him agreeably with the company of a young lady who had been my school-fellow, and for whom I had a very great friendship.
I wrote to her, and invited her to spend a few months with me; the spring was now far advanced, and I gave her a most romantic description of my charming retreat, in order to induce her to comply, with my request.
She answered my letter with a great deal of common place rallery upon the country, and my rusticated taste, and positively refused to come.
I shewed her letter to Alcander, so let me call my husband: he smiled when he read it. ‘This is a fine modish lady, said he, bewitched with the pleasures of the town; pray insist upon her coming hither, that we may make a convert of her.’
Charmed to have it in my power to oblige him, I wrote to her immediately in such pressing terms to favour me with a visit, that I drew a promise from her to comply, and a few days afterwards her maid arrived early in the morning, and told me her lady was following in a post-chaise, and had sent her before to spread her toilet and prepare every thing for her dressing as soon as she arrived.
I observed Alcander smile archly at these words, and at the sight of a great number of trunks and band-boxes, which the servant had brought with her. From several things that were said by this girl, I observed that her lady was grown extremely fantastical; and I was a little out of countenance when I reflected, that I had done no honour to my judgment, by introducing her as my friend to Alcander. Alas! madam, how little did I then imagine that this flighty creature was to rob me of my husband’s affections!
When she arrived, her appearance did not contradict the opinion we had formed of her; every look and motion, the sound of her voice, and the turn of her expressions, were calculated to suit, by a pretty effronterie, the masculine graces she derived from her hat and feather.
I perceived that she was struck with my husband’s figure, and my vanity was soothed by it. Doubtless she did not expect to see the fine gentleman and the tender husband united in the person of my then faithful Alcander. Ah, how dearly have I since paid for the short triumph I then enjoyed!
I attended Belinda, so let me call her, to her apartment; and here, being witness to a great deal of lively impertinence which escaped her, I could not help telling her, with an ironical smile, ‘That she was prodigiously improved since she left the boarding-school.’
I was afraid she would have been offended by the manner in which I spoke these words; but, to my great surprize, she answered, with a low courtesy and a smile of self-approbation, ‘My dear, I am vastly obliged to you.’ I left her in her dressing-room, to join Alcander in the garden, who diverted himself extremely with her ridiculous affectation.
We did not see her till dinner was served; and then she appeared in full dress, curled, powdered, and patched, as if she had been going to an assembly. The moment she saw Alcander her eyes fell to work, and there was nothing but ogling all dinner-time; whenever she spoke to him, her voice was softened, and her mouth screwed into a thousand different forms.
I might perhaps have been early alarmed at this solicitude to attract the notice of my husband, had I not observed her practice the same airs upon the fellow that waited behind her chair, who, whenever he helped her to any thing, was sure to be met with a sparkling glance, that seemed to solicit his admiration also; for vanity will, as the poet says, Prey upon garbage
I have now brought my story to that point from whence I may date all my sufferings: my heart is too full at present to permit me to proceed; I will take another opportunity to give you the sequel, and am, Madam,
Your obliged Humble Servant, PERDITA.