me in the same coach; for I had a jealous thought, though I
had no ground for it at all, lest he should think I was not really in
the country. And it was no ill-grounded thought as you shall hear
presently.

I endeavoured to reason myself out of it, but it was in vain; the
impression lay so strong on my mind, that it was not to be resisted.
At last it came as an addition to my new design of going into the
country, that it would be an excellent blind to my old governess, and
would cover entirely all my other affairs, for she did not know in the
least whether my new lover lived in London or in Lancashire; and when I
told her my resolution, she was fully persuaded it was in Lancashire.

Having taken my measure for this journey I let her know it, and sent
the maid that tended me, from the beginning, to take a place for me in
the coach. She would have had me let the maid have waited on me down
to the last stage, and come up again in the waggon, but I convinced her
it would not be convenient. When I went away, she told me she would
enter into no measures for correspondence, for she saw evidently that
my affection to my child would cause me to write to her, and to visit
her too when I came to town again. I assured her it would, and so took
my leave, well satisfied to have been freed from such a house, however
good my accommodations there had been, as I have related above.

I took the place in the coach not to its full extent, but to a place
called Stone, in Cheshire, I think it is, where I not only had no
manner of business, but not so much as the least acquaintance with any
person in the town or near it. But I knew that with money in the
pocket one is at home anywhere; so I lodged there two or three days,
till, watching my opportunity, I found room in another stage-coach, and
took passage back again for London, sending a letter to my gentleman
that I should be such a certain day at Stony-Stratford, where the
coachman told me he was to lodge.

It happened to be a chance coach that I had taken up, which, having
been hired on purpose to carry some gentlemen to West Chester who were
going for Ireland, was now returning, and did not tie itself to exact
times or places as the stages did; so that, having been obliged to lie
still on Sunday, he had time to get himself ready to come out, which
otherwise he could not have done.

However, his warning was so short, that he could not reach to
Stony-Stratford time enough to be wi