The Stranger’s Appearance
Her father, learning of the service rendered, loaded the stranger with caresses and insisted he stay the night. The narrator was inspired with gratitude and found him entitled to more. He was about twenty-two, among the tallest of the middle size, with chestnut-colored hair tied in a ribbon, a high polished forehead, an aquiline nose, lively blue eyes, red pouting lips, teeth white as snow, and an open countenance. She noted he was the exact resemblance of her listener, and if she had not known his family and degree, she would have thought them brothers. His conversation was ingenuous, sensible, and uncommon. They learned he was the eldest son of a wealthy local gentleman and had been returning from visiting an acquaintance when her shrieks brought him to her rescue.
Romance and Infatuation
That night, her imagination formed a thousand expectations. The knight-errantry of the rescue filled her thoughts with romantic notions drawn from her reading. She envisioned herself as a princess delivered by a generous Oroondates, bound in gratitude to yield her affections. She tried to chasten these thoughts but could not. Dreams showed her hero sighing at her feet as a despairing lover.
Declaration of Love
After his first visit, her father expressed a desire for further acquaintance, to which the stranger replied with a compliment to her father and a look to her full of eloquence and tenderness. He soon repeated his visit and artfully insinuated himself into her esteem by seeming to contradict her through misapprehension, giving her opportunity to clarify her views and enhance her reputation. Having secured her good opinion, he began showing tokens of a particular passion, praising her mind while admiring her person. When fully persuaded of his conquest, he disclosed his love so ardently and sincerely that she could not disguise her heart’s sentiments, and he received her approbation with transport.
Seduction and Betrayal
They arranged private meetings and enjoyed elevated conversation. He proclaimed honorable intentions and lamented his father’s avarice, which had destined him for another match. He vowed eternal fidelity with such candor that she became his dupe. She curses the day she gave away her innocence and peace, her beauty, her education, and her good sense that made her heart susceptible.
Abandonment and Despair
After some months, his visits became less frequent and his behavior colder. When she demanded he perform his promise to marry her, he seemed to acquiesce and left on pretence of finding a clergyman, but never intended to return. After waiting a week, a gentleman informed her that Lothario was setting out for London with his bride to buy clothes for their nuptials. She was distracted with rage, then subsided to silent sorrow, then hoped again, but ultimately learned of his marriage. Her horror was inconceivable, and but for her desire of revenge, she would have ended her life.
Flight to London
She furnished herself with money and eloped from her father at night, arriving at a small town where she took a stage coach to London. The spirit of revenge supported her against all other reflections. She hired a lodging under a feigned name and soon found Lothario’s house, where she went in a transport of rage.
Confrontation with Lothario
She demanded admission to Lothario, refusing to send her name. She was conducted to a parlor, where after waiting a quarter hour, a servant said his master was engaged with company. Her temper could hold no longer; she produced a poniard from her bosom and rushed upstairs exclaiming she would plunge it into his false heart. The noise alarmed the household; she was seized and disarmed. In this state she beheld Lothario approaching with his young wife, fell into a severe fit, and lost her senses.
The Fever and Miscarriage
When she recovered, she found herself attended by an old woman in a paltry apartment. She learned Lothario had called her mad and proposed sending her to Bedlam, but his wife believed there was more to her conduct than he wished known. She desired to leave and was conveyed to her lodgings. The agitation of her thoughts produced a fever, which brought on a miscarriage. She confesses that if she had borne a living child, her frenzy might have prompted her to sacrifice the innocent to her resentment.
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