Angela
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure)
Letter The Second
"... As to my natural father, he had betaken himself to the sea; where, when the truth of things came out, I was told that he died, not immensely rich you may think, since he was no more than a common sailor. As I grew up, under the eyes of my mother, who kept on the business, I could not but see, in her severe watchfulness, the marks of a slip which she did not care should be hereditary, but we no more choose our passions than our features or complexion, and the bent of mine was so strong to the forbidden pleasure, that it got the better, at length, of all her care and precaution. I was scarce twelve years old before that part which she wanted so much to keep out of harm's way made me feel its impatience to be taken notice of, and come into play: already had it put forth the signs of forwardness in the sprout of a soft down over it, which had often flatter'd, and I might also say, grown under my constant touch and visitation, so pleas'd was I with what I took to be a kind of title to womanhood, that state I pin'd to be entr'd of, for the pleasures I conceiv'd were annexed to it; and now the growing importance of that part to me, and the new sensations in it, demolish'd at once all my girlish playthings and amusements. Nature now pointed me strongly to more solid diversions, while all the stings of desire settled so fiercely in that little centre of them, that I could not mistake the spot I wanted a playfellow in.
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