ident might occasion my slipping
through her fingers, she would officiously take me in a coach to my inn,
where, calling herself for my box, it was, I being present, delivered
without the least scruple or explanation as to where I was going.

This being over, she bid the coachman drive to a shop in St. Paul's
Churchyard, where she bought a pair of gloves, which she gave me, and
thence renewed her directions to the coachman to drive to her house in
------ street, who accordingly landed us at the door, after I had been
cheered up and entertained by the way with the most plausible flams,
without one syllable from which I could conclude anything but that I was,
by the greatest luck, fallen into the hands of kindest mistress, not to
say friend, that the vast world could afford; and accordingly I entered
her doors with most complete confidence and exultation, promising,
myself that, as soon as I could be a little settled, I would acquaint
Esther Davis with my rare good fortune.

You may be sure the good opinion of my place was not lessened by the
appearance of a very handsome back parlor, into which I was led and
which seemed to me magnificently furnished, who had never seen better
rooms than the ordinary ones in inns upon the road. There were two gilt
pier-glasses, and a buffet, on which a few pieces of plate, set out to
the most shew, dazzled, and altogether persuaded me that I must be got
into a very reputable family.

Here my mistress first began her part, with telling me that I must have
good spirits, and learn to be free with her; that she had not taken me
to be a common servant, to do domestic drudgery, but to be a kind of
companion to her; and that if I would be a good girl, she would do
more than twenty mothers for me; to all which I answered only by the
profoundest and the awkwardest curtsies, and a few monosyllables, such
as "'yes! no! to be sure!"

Presently my mistress touched the bell, and in came a strapping
maid-servant, who had let us in. "Here, Martha," said Mrs. Brown, "I
have just hired this young woman to look after my linen; so step up and
show her her chamber; and I charge you to use her with as much respect
as you would myself, for I have taken a prodigious liking to her, and I
do not know what I shall do for her."

Martha, who was an arch-jade, and, being used to this decoy, had her
cue perfect, made me a kind of half curtsy, and asked me to walk up
with her; and accordingly showed me a neat room