nly
acquainted him, that she had taken a place in the stage, should set
out next morning, and in three days be in London; against which time,
she begged he would be so good to provide her a commodious lodging,
she being determined to go to none of her kindred, for the reason
abovementioned.

Being animated with exactly the same sentiments Natura was, that
inclination which led him to wish her coming, influenced her also to
be pleased with it, and rendered the fatigue of the journey, and those
others she expected to find on her arrival, of no consequence, when
balanced against the happiness she proposed, in re-enjoying the
conversation of her aimable and worthy friend.

But all this Natura was ignorant of; nor did his vanity suggest to him
the least part of what passed in his favour in the bosom of his lovely
Charlotte; but he needed no more than the knowledge she was coming to
a place where he should have her company, with less interruption than
he had hitherto the opportunity of, to make him the most transported
man alive. As he had no house of his own in town to accommodate her
with, he provided lodgings, and every thing necessary for her
reception, with an alacrity worthy of his love, and the confidence she
reposed in him; and went in his own coach to take her from the stage
some miles on the road. She testified her gratitude for the care he
took of her affairs, in the most obliging and polite acknowledgments;
and he returned the thanks she gave him, with the sincerest
assurances, that the thoughts of having it in his power to do her any
little service, afforded him the most elevated pleasure he had ever
known in his whole life.

What they said to each other, however, on this score, was taken by
each, more as the effects of gallantry and good breeding, than the
real motives from which the expressions they both made use of, had
their source:--equal was their tenderness, equal also was their
diffidence, it being the peculiar property of a true and perfect love,
always to fear, and never to hope too much.

Natura had taken care to chuse her an apartment very near the place
where he lodged himself, which luckily happened to be in an extreme
airy and genteel part of the town; so that he had the pleasure of
seeing her, not only every day, but almost every hour in the day, on
one pretext or other, which his industrious passion dictated; and this
almost continual being together, and, for the most part, without any
othe