Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 1).pdf/46

 woman could see him with impunity: in consequence of which idea, he had lavished great sums on such wretches as could gain upon themselves to pretend love to his person, whilst to those who had not art or patience to dissemble the horror it inspir'd, he behaved even brutally. Impotence, more than necessity, made him seek in variety, the provocative that was wanting to raise him to the pitch of enjoyment, which too he often saw himself baulked of by the failure of his powers: and this always threw him into a fit of rage, which he wreak'd, as far as he durst, on the innocent objects of his fit of momentary desire. This then was the monster to which my conscientious benefactress, who had long been his purveyor in this way, had doomed me, and sent for me down purposely for his examination: accordingly she made me stand up before him, turned me round, unpin'd my handkerchief, remark'd to him the rise and fall, the turn, and whiteness of a bosom just ginning