rhaps, get so much in a year,
as she might with him in one day; that the times were greatly changed,
since the queen's and the duchess's maids of honour forestalled the
market, and were to be had cheaper than the town ladies." Upon this he
went back to his coach, whilst they blessed themselves, returning heaven
their most hearty thanks for having escaped this danger without being
discovered.

Brounker, on the other hand, would not have taken a thousand guineas
for this rencounter: he blessed the Lord that he had not alarmed them to
such a degree as to frustrate their intention; for he made no doubt but
Miss Price had managed some intrigue for Miss Jennings: he therefore
immediately concluded, that at present it would be improper to make
known his discovery, which would have answered no other end but to have
overwhelmed them with confusion.

Upon this account, although Jermyn was one of his best friends, he felt
a secret joy in not having prevented his being made a cuckold, before
his marriage; and the apprehension he was in of preserving him from that
accident, was his sole reason for quitting them with the precautions
aforementioned.

Whilst they were under these alarms, their coachman was engaged in a
squabble with some blackguard boys, who had gathered round his coach
in order to steal the oranges: from words they came to blows: the two
nymphs saw the commencement of the fray as they were returning to
the coach, after having abandoned the design of going to the
fortuneteller's. Their coachman being a man of spirit, it was with great
difficulty they could persuade him to leave their oranges to the mob,
that they might get off without any further disturbance: having thus
regained their hack, after a thousand frights, and after having received
an abundant share of the most low and infamous abuse applied to them
during the fracas, they at length reached St. James's, vowing never
more to go after fortune-tellers, through so many dangers, terrors, and
alarms, as they had lately undergone.

Brounker, who, from the indifferent opinion he entertained of the fair
sex, would have staked his life that Miss Jennings did not return from
this expedition in the same condition she went, kept his thoughts,
however, a profound secret; since it would have afforded him the highest
satisfaction to have seen the all-fortunate Jermyn marry a little
street-walker, who pretended to pass for a pattern of chastity, that he
might, the day a