rted
in my eyes, burning tears; for there are situations in which a wretch is
humbled by the contempt they are conscious they do not deserve.

"I returned to the metropolis; but the solitude of a poor lodging was
inconceivably dreary, after the society I had enjoyed. To be cut off
from human converse, now I had been taught to relish it, was to wander a
ghost among the living. Besides, I foresaw, to aggravate the severity of
my fate, that my little pittance would soon melt away. I endeavoured to
obtain needlework; but, not having been taught early, and my hands
being rendered clumsy by hard work, I did not sufficiently excel to
be employed by the ready-made linen shops, when so many women, better
qualified, were suing for it. The want of a character prevented my
getting a place; for, irksome as servitude would have been to me,
I should have made another trial, had it been feasible. Not that I
disliked employment, but the inequality of condition to which I must
have submitted. I had acquired a taste for literature, during the five
years I had lived with a literary man, occasionally conversing with
men of the first abilities of the age; and now to descend to the lowest
vulgarity, was a degree of wretchedness not to be imagined unfelt. I had
not, it is true, tasted the charms of affection, but I had been familiar
with the graces of humanity.

"One of the gentlemen, whom I had frequently dined in company with,
while I was treated like a companion, met me in the street, and enquired
after my health. I seized the occasion, and began to describe my
situation; but he was in haste to join, at dinner, a select party of
choice spirits; therefore, without waiting to hear me, he impatiently
put a guinea into my hand, saying, 'It was a pity such a sensible woman
should be in distress--he wished me well from his soul.'

"To another I wrote, stating my case, and requesting advice. He was
an advocate for unequivocal sincerity; and had often, in my presence,
descanted on the evils which arise in society from the despotism of rank
and riches.

"In reply, I received a long essay on the energy of the human mind, with
continual allusions to his own force of character. He added, 'That the
woman who could write such a letter as I had sent him, could never be in
want of resources, were she to look into herself, and exert her powers;
misery was the consequence of indolence, and, as to my being shut out
from society, it was the lot of man to s