him, that one day it was possible he
might be convinced of the injury I had suffered, and repent of his
premature determination. To which remark he answered, the proof of my
innocence would make his bowels vibrate with joy; "but till that shall
happen," continued he, "I mast beg to have no manner of connection
with you--my reputation is at stake. I shall be looked upon as your
accomplice and abettor--people will say Jonathan Wild was but a type of
me-boys will hoot at me as I pass along; and the cinder-wenches belch
forth reproaches wafted in a gale impregnated with gin: I shall be
notorious--the very butt of slander, and sink of infamy!" I was not in
a humour to relish the climax of expressions upon which this gentleman
valued himself in all his discourses; but, without any ceremony, took
my leave, cursed with every sentiment of horror which my situation could
suggest. I considered, however, in the intervals of my despondence, that
I must, in some shape suit my expense to my calamitous circumstances,
and with that view hired an apartment in a garret near St. Giles's, at
the rate of nine-pence per week.

I one day, when I sat in this solitary retreat musing upon the
unhappiness of my fate, was alarmed by a groan that issued from s
chamber contiguous to mine, into which I immediately ran, and found a
woman stretched on a miserable truckle bed, without any visible signs of
life. Having applied a smelling bottle to her nose, the blood began to
revisit her cheeks, and she opened her eyes; but, good heaven! what were
the emotions of my soul, when I discovered her to be the same individual
lady who had triumphed over my heart, and to whose fate I had almost
been inseparably joined! Her deplorable situation filled my breast with
compassion. She knew me immediately; and, straining me gently in her
arms, shed a torrent of tears, which I could not help increasing. At
length, casting a languishing look at me, she pronounced with a feeble
voice, "Dear Mr. Random, I do not deserve this concern at your hands: I
am a vile creature, who had a base design upon your person--suffer me,
to expiate that, and all my other crimes, by a miserable death, which
will not fail to overtake me in a few hour." I encouraged her as much
as I could, told her I forgave all her intentions with regard to me;
and that, although my circumstances were extremely low, I would share my
last farthing with her. I begged in the meantime to know the immediate
cause