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she cared to acknowledge. In addition to his talent for argu-
ment, Lemoine was handsome and had money—he showed
her quite a handful of bank-notes one day. He told her of
London and the great ladies there, and hinting that they
were not always virtuous, drew himself up with a moody
air, as though he had been unhappily the cause of their fatal
lapse into wickedness. Sarah did not wonder at this in the
least. Had she been a great lady, she would have done the
same. She began to coquet with this seductive fellow, and to
hint to him that she had too much knowledge of the world
to set a fictitious value upon virtue. He mistook her artful-
ness for innocence, and thought he had made a conquest.
Moreover, the girl was pretty, and when dressed properly,
would look well. Only one obstacle stood in the way of their
loves— the dashing profligate was poor. He had been living
in London above his means, and his father was not inclined
to increase his allowance.
Sarah liked him better than anybody else she had seen,
but there are two sides to every bargain. Sarah Purfoy must
go to London. In vain her lover sighed and swore. Unless he
would promise to take her away with him, Diana was not
more chaste. The more virtuous she grew, the more vicious
did Lemoine feel. His desire to possess her increased in pro-
portionate ratio to her resistance, and at last he borrowed
two hundred pounds from his father’s confidential clerk
(the Lemoines were merchants by profession), and acceded
to her wishes. There was no love on either side— vanity was
the mainspring of the whole transaction. Lemoine did not
like to be beaten; Sarah sold herself for a passage to England

1 For the Term of His Natural Life