TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE
  FEUILLIDE THIS NOVEL IS
     INSCRIBED BY HER
  OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT
           THE AUTHOR.

    "Deceived in Friendship
           and Betrayed in Love."

 
  LETTER the FIRST From
       ISABEL to LAURA

    How often,
           in answer
               to my repeated intreaties
             that you
                would give
                       my Daughter
                     a regular detail
                       of the Misfortunes
                     and Adventures of your Life,
         have you said
           "No,
               my friend never
                 will I
                      comply with your request
                 till I
                    may be no longer
                           in Danger of again
                          experiencing such dreadful ones."

    Surely that time
        is now at hand.

    You are this day 55.

    If a woman
        may ever
              be said
                  to be
                       in safety
                     from the determined
                         Perseverance
                            of
                         disagreeable
                            Lovers
                           and the cruel
                             Persecutions
                                of obstinate Fathers,
           surely it
            must be
                   at such
                       a time of Life.

    Isabel

 
  LETTER 2nd LAURA to ISABEL

    Altho' I
        cannot agree
               with you
             in supposing
         that I
            shall never again
                  be exposed to Misfortunes
                       as unmerited as those
             I have already experienced,
           yet to avoid the imputation
               of Obstinacy
              or ill-nature,
         I will gratify the curiosity
               of your daughter;
        and may the fortitude
             with which
                 I have
                      suffered the
                           many afflictions of my
                         past Life,
           prove to
               her a useful lesson
             for the support of those
              which may befall her
                   in her own.

    Laura

 
  LETTER 3rd LAURA to MARIANNE

    As the Daughter of my
           most intimate friend
         I think you entitled to
           that knowledge
               of my unhappy story,
           which your Mother
            has so often solicited me
                  to give you.

    My Father
        was a native of Ireland
               and an inhabitant of Wales;
        my Mother
            was the natural Daughter
                   of a Scotch Peer
                 by an italian Opera-girl
          --I was born
               in Spain and
              received my Education
                   at a Convent in France.

    When I
        had reached my eighteenth Year
         I was
              recalled by my Parents
                to my paternal
                   roof in Wales.

    Our mansion
        was situated
               in one of the
                   most romantic parts
                       of the Vale of Uske.

    Tho' my Charms
        are now considerably
              softened and somewhat
                  impaired by the Misfortunes
         I have undergone,
           I was once beautiful.

    But lovely as
         I was the Graces
               of my Person
            were the least
                   of my Perfections.

    Of every accomplishment accustomary
           to my sex,
         I was Mistress.

    When in the Convent,
           my progress
            had always exceeded my instructions,
         my Acquirements
            had been wonderfull
                   for my age,
           and I
            had shortly surpassed my Masters.

    In my Mind,
           every Virtue
             that could adorn it
                was centered;
        it was the Rendez-vous of
               every good Quality
             and of every noble sentiment.

    A sensibility too tremblingly alive
           to every affliction
               of my Friends,
           my Acquaintance and
              particularly to
                   every affliction of my own,
         was my only fault,
           if a fault it
            could be called.

    Alas!

    how altered now!

    Tho' indeed my own Misfortunes
          do not
              make less impression
                   on me than
         they ever did,
           yet now
             I never feel
                   for those of an other.

    My accomplishments too,
           begin to fade
         --I can neither
              sing so well
                  nor Dance so gracefully as
             I once did--
           and I
              have entirely