called them, under the contribution of
poundage. She was a severe enemy to the seduction for innocence, and
confined her acquisitions solely to those unfortunate young women, who,
having lost it, were but the juster objects of compassion: among these,
indeed, she picked out such as suited her views and taking them under
her protection, rescued them from the danger of the public sinks of ruin
and misery, to place, or for them, well or ill, in the manner you have
seen. Having then settled her affairs, she set out on her journey, after
taking the most tender leave of me, and at the end of some excellent
instructions, recommending me to myself, with an anxiety perfectly
maternal. In short, she affected me so much, that I was not presently
reconciled to myself for suffering her at any rate to go without me; but
fate had, it seems, otherwise disposed of me.

I had, on my separation from Mrs. Cole, taken a pleasant convenient
house at Marylebone, but easy to rent and manage from its smallness,
which I furnished neatly and modestly. There, with a reserve of eight
hundred pounds, the fruit of my deference to Mrs. Cole's counsels,
exclusive of clothes, some jewels, and some plate, I saw myself in purse
for a long time, to wait without impatience for what the chapter of
accidents might produce in my favour.

Here, under the new character of a young gentlewoman whose husband was
gone to sea, I had marked me out such lines of life and conduct, as
leaving me a competent liberty to pursue my views either out of pleasure
or fortune, bounded me nevertheless strictly within the rules of decency
and discretion: a disposition, in which you cannot escape observing a
true pupil of Mrs. Cole.

I was scarce, however, well warm in my new abode, when going out one
morning pretty early to enjoy the freshness of it, in the pleasing
outlet of the fields, accompanied only by a maid, whom I had newly
hired, as we were carelessly walking among the trees, we were alarmed
with the noise of a violent coughing: turning our heads towards which,
we distinguished a plain well dressed elderly gentleman, who, attacked
with a sudden fit, was so much overcome, as to be forced to give way to
it and sit down at the foot of a tree, where he seemed suffocating with
the severity of it, being perfectly black in the face; not less moved
than frightened with which, I flew on the instant to his relief, and
using the rote of practice I had observed on the like occasion