Page:Pathetic history of George Barnwell the London apprentice.pdf/7

 would arise from the triumph of his virtuous principles in the hour of temptation.

Thus did the misguided youth reason himself into an opinion, that the second interview was founded on the most excellent of motives; and, when the evening approached, forming an excuse for his absence, he left his master's house, and with impatient steps hurried to Milwood's residence. As he reached the abode of this depraved woman, a strange fluttering of heart betrayed his emotions. If the imagination of Barnwell was already wrought to a dangerous warmth, his second reception was calculated to increase it. On a crimson damask sofa, placed under a brilliant mirror illuminated with wax-lights, the syren Milwood reclined. She did not rise as he entered the room, but holding out a most beautiful arm, encircled at the wrist with a brilliant bracelet, she motioned him to be seated. George doubted for a moment whether the woman of sentiment he had beheld on the preceding day, and the wanton form now before him, were the same. She touched the strings of a harp which lay near her, and the effect on Barnwell was instantaneous. Her embrace so infatuated him, as to destroy all his good resolutions, and his heart once more renounced its principles.

This moment the artful woman directly fixed on to complete the ruin of Barnwell, and with