ray's Inn, shall
be handsomely rewarded; or if she will return to the arms of her
disconsolate parent, she will be received with the utmost tenderness,
whatever reason she may have to think otherwise, and may be the means of
prolonging the life of a father already weighed down almost to the grave
with age and sorrow."

'This pathetic remonstrance had such an effect on me, that I was fully
resolved to return, like the prodigal son, and implore the forgiveness
of him who gave me life; but, alas! Upon inquiry, I found he had paid
his debt to nature a month before, lamenting my absence to his last
hour, having left his fortune to a stranger, as a mark of his resentment
of my unkind and undutiful behaviour. Penetrated with remorse on this
occasion, I sank into the most profound melancholy, and considered
myself as the immediate cause of his death. I lost all relish for
company; and, indeed, most of my acquaintances no sooner perceived
my change of temper, than they abandoned me. Horatio, disgusted at my
insensibility, or from some other cause, became colder and colder every
day, till at last he left me altogether, without making any apology for
his conduct, or securing me against the miseries of want, as a man of
honour ought to have done, considering the share he had in my ruin; for
I afterwards learned, that the quarrel between Lothario and him was a
story trumped up to rid the one of my importunities, and give the other
a recommendation to me, which, it seems, he desired, upon seeing me
at the house of my seducer. Reduced to this extremity, I cursed my
own simplicity, uttered horrid imprecations against the treachery of
Horatio; and, as I became every day more and more familiarised to the
loss of innocence, resolved to be revenged on the sex in general, by
practising their own arts upon themselves. Nor was an opportunity long
wanting: an old gentlewoman, under pretence of sympathising, visited
me, and after having condoled me on my misfortunes, and professed a
disinterested friendship, began to display the art of her occupation,
in encomiums on my beauty, and invectives against the wretch who had
forsaken me; insinuating withal, that it would be my own fault if I did
not still make my fortune by the extraordinary qualifications with which
nature had endowed me. I soon understood her drift, and gave her
such encouragement to explain herself, that we came to an agreement
immediately to divide whatever profits might accrue f