end to remain long in the company. In short, I aspired to
the London boards; but aware that I wanted practice, without which it
would have been useless to have offered myself, I accepted this
situation without delay, and applied with great assiduity to the study
of my profession. My father, I found, had married again; and my joining
the company added nothing to his domestic harmony, my stepmother
becoming immoderately jealous of me; but I took good care to keep my own
secret, and never exposed myself for one moment to any suspicion of my
character, which hitherto, thank Heaven, has been pure, though I am
exposed to a thousand temptations, and beset by the actors to become the
wife of one, or the mistress of another.

"Among those who proposed the latter was my honoured father, to whom, on
that account, I was one day on the point of revealing the secret of my
birth, as the only means of saving myself from his importunities. He
was at last taken ill, and died only three months ago, not before I had
completed my engagements, and obtained an increased salary of one guinea
and a half per week. It is my intention to quit the company at the
expiration of my present term, which will take place in two months, for
I am miserable here, although I am quite at a loss to know what will be
my future destination."

In return for her confidence I imparted as much of my history as I
thought it necessary for her to know. I became deeply fascinated,--I
forgot Miss Somerville, and answered my father's letter respectfully and
kindly. He informed me that, he had procured my name to be entered on
the books of the guard-ship at Spithead; but that I might gain time to
loiter by the side of Eugenia, I begged his permission to join my ship
without returning home, alleging, as a reason, that delay would soften
down any asperity of feeling occasioned by the late fracas. This, in
his answer, he agreed to, enclosing a handsome remittance; and the same
post brought a pressing invitation from Mr Somerville to come to
--- Hall.

My little actress informed me that the company would set out in two days
for the neighbourhood of Portsmouth; and, as I found that they would be
more than a fortnight in travelling, I determined to accept the
invitation, and quit her for the present. I had been more than a week
in her society. At parting, I professed my admiration and love.
Silence, and a starting tear, were her only acknowledgement. I saw that
she w