was scarcely begun, yet having no inducement to go to
any other place, she went to London; and as I had prolonged my stay in
the country only to gratify my inclination for her company, I went with
her to town. Mrs Alworth did not continue there a month after us; but
her husband, whose health was by no means in a good state, went to Bath;
and that he might not be quite destitute of pleasure, he carried his
little boy with him, though but a year and a quarter old. His wife did
not contend with him for this privilege, she would have seen little more
of the babe had it been in London.

Harriot Trentham was at her first arrival in very low spirits, and every
letter she received from Mr Alworth increased her dejection, as it
painted his in very strong colours. As the town filled she began to try
if dissipation could dispel her melancholy. Her beauty, the fineness of
her person, and her being known to have a large fortune, which fame even
exaggerated, procured her many lovers and she became the most admired
woman in town. This was a new source of pleasure to her. She had lived
where she saw not many single men, and though few of these who dared to
flatter themselves with hopes, had failed paying their addresses to her,
yet these successive courtships were very dull when compared with all
the flutter of general admiration. Her books were now neglected, and to
avoid thinking on a subject which constantly afflicted her, she forced
herself into public and was glad to find that the idleness of the men
and her own vanity could afford her entertainment.

She was not however so totally engrossed by this pleasing dissipation as
to neglect any means of serving the distressed. Mrs Tonston, exerting
the genius she had so early shewn for traducing others, set her husband
and his family at variance, till at length the falsehoods by which she
had effected it came to be discovered. Her husband and she had never
lived well together, and this proof of her bad heart disgusted him so
entirely that he turned her out of his house, allowing her a mere trifle
for her support. In this distress she applied to Harriot, who she knew
was ever ready to serve even those who had most injured her.

Her application was not unsuccessful. Harriot sent her a considerable
present for her immediate convenience and then went into the country to
Mr Tonston, to whom she represented so effectually his ungenerous
treatment, since the fortune his wife brought him gave h