Giacinta was unprincipled and violent: I tired of her in three months.

Clara was honest and quiet; but heavy，mindless，and unimpressible: not one whit to my taste. I was glad to give her a sufficient sum to set her up in a good line of business，and so get decently rid of her.

But，Jane，I see by your face you are not forming a very favourable opinion of me just now. You think me an unfeeling，loose-principled rake: don"t you?"

"I don"t like you so well as I have done sometimes，indeed，sir.

Did it not seem to you in the least wrong to live in that way，first with one mistress and then another? You talk of it as a mere matter of course."

"It was with me; and I did not like it. It was a grovelling fashion of existence: I should never like to return to it. Hiring a mistress is the next worse thing to buying a slave: both are often by nature，and always by position，inferior: and to live familiarly with inferiors is degrading. I now hate the recollection of the time I passed with Celine，Giacinta，and Clara."

I felt the truth of these words; and I drew from them the certain inference，that if I were so far to forget myself and all the teaching that had ever been instilled into me，as- under any pretext- with any justification- through any temptation- to bee the successor of these poor girls，he would one day regard me with the same feeling which now in his mind desecrated their memory. I did not give utterance to this conviction: it was enough to feel it. I impressed it on my heart，that it might remain there to serve me as aid in the time of trial.

"Now，Jane，why don"t you say "Well，sir?" I have not done. You are looking grave. You disapprove of me still，I see. But let me e to the point. Last January，rid of all mistresses- in a harsh，bitter frame of mind，the result of a useless，roving，lonely life-corroded with disappointment，sourly disposed against all men，and especially against all womankind (for I began to regard the notion of an intellectual，faithful，loving woman as a mere dream)，recalled by business，I came back to England.