im with their company embittered
that favour with disagreeable advice, mingled with impertinent reproof.
They loudly exclaimed against the last instance of his friendship for
Fathom, as a piece of wrong-headed extravagance, which neither his
fortune could afford nor his conscience excuse; and alleged that such
specimens of generosity are vicious in any man, let his finances be never
so opulent, if he has any relations of his own who need his assistance;
but altogether scandalous, not to say unjust, in a person who depends for
his own support on the favour of his friends.

These expostulations did not even respect the beauteous, the
accomplished, the gentle-hearted, the orphan Monimia. Although they
owned her perfections, and did not deny that it would be highly
meritorious in any man of fortune to make her happy, they disapproved of
Renaldo's attachment to the fair beggar, made light of that intimate
union of hearts which subsisted between the two lovers, and which no
human consideration could dissolve; and some among them, in the
consummation of their prudence, ventured to hint a proposal of providing
for her in the service of some lady of fashion.

Any reader of sensibility will easily conceive how these admonitions were
relished by a young gentleman whose pride was indomitable, whose notions
of honour were scrupulously rigid and romantic, whose temper was warm,
and whose love was intense. Every such suggestion was as a dagger to his
soul; and what rendered the torture more exquisite, he lay under
obligations to those very persons whose selfish and sordid sentiments he
disdained; so that he was restricted by gratitude from giving vent to his
indignation, and his forlorn circumstances would not permit him to
renounce their acquaintance. While he struggled with these
mortifications, his wants grew more and more importunate, and his
creditors became clamorous.

Fathom, to whom all his grievances were disclosed, lamented his hard hap
with all the demonstrations of sympathy which he could expect to find in
such a zealous adherent. He upbraided himself incessantly as the cause
of his patron's distress; took God to witness that he would rather have
perished in gaol than have enjoyed his liberty, had he known it would
have cost his dearest friend and benefactor one-tenth part of the anguish
he now saw him suffer; and, in conclusion, the fervency of his affection
glowed to such a degree, that he offered to beg, steal, or