"Well," thought I, "I have said it, and, be the consequences what they
may, it shall not be my fault if I fail to do it." At once I determined
to consider her my wife; and, this done, all my powers of discovery were
put to work in search of perfections in her which might be fairly set off
against her defects. I tried to imagine her handsome, which, but for her
unfortunate corpulency, was actually true. Exclusive of this no woman
that I have ever seen has a finer face. I also tried to convince myself
that the mind was much more to be valued than the person; and in this she
was not inferior, as I could discover, to any with whom I had been
acquainted.
Shortly after this, without coming to any positive understanding with
her, I set out for Vandalia, when and where you first saw me. During my
stay there I had letters from her which did not change my opinion of
either her intellect or intention, but on the contrary confirmed it in
both.
All this while, although I was fixed, "firm as the surge-repelling rock,"
in my resolution, I found I was continually repenting the rashness which
had led me to make it.
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