my apartment, alone and at night; where silence, love and shades, are
all your friends, where opportunity obliges your passion, while,
heaven knows, not one of all these, nor any kind of power, is friend
to me; I shall be left to you and all these tyrants expos'd, without
other guards than this boasted virtue; which had need be wondrous to
resist all these powerful enemies of its purity and repose. Alas I
know not its strength, I never tried it yet; and this will be the
first time it has ever been expos'd to your power; the first time I
ever had courage to meet you as a lover, and let you in by stealth,
and put myself unguarded into your hands: oh I die with the
apprehension of approaching danger! and yet I have not power to
retreat; I must on, love compels me, love holds me fast; the smiling
flatterer promises a thousand joys, a thousand ravishing minutes of
delight; all innocent and harmless as his mother's doves; but oh they
bill and kiss, and do a thousand things I must forbid _Philander_; for
I have often heard him say with sighs, that his complexion render'd
him less capable of the soft play of love, than any other lover: I
have seen him fly my very touches, yet swear they were the greatest
joy on earth; I tempt him even with my looks from virtue: and when I
ask the cause, or cry he is cold, he vows 'tis because he dares not
endure my temptations; says his blood runs hotter and fiercer in his
veins than any other's does; nor have the oft repeated joys reaped in
the marriage bed, any thing abated that which he wish'd, but he fear'd
would ruin me: thus, thus whole days we have sat and gaz'd, and
sigh'd; but durst not trust our virtues with fond dalliance.

My page is come to tell me that Madam the Duchess of ---- is come to
_Bellfont_, and I am oblig'd to quit my cabinet, but with infinite
regret, being at present much more to my soul's content employ'd; but
love must sometimes give place to _devoir_ and respect. _Dorillus_ too