'ther; for, to tell you a secret, which I desire you won't mention in the family, I intend to quit the 'house to day.'-'What, hath Mrs. Miller given you warning too, my friend? cries Jones. No' answered the other; but the rooms are not con'venient enough. -Besides, I am grown weary ' of this part of the town. I want to be nearer the places of diversion; so I am going to Pall-mall.'

And do you intend to make a secret of your 'going away?' said Jones, I promise you,' answered Nightingale, I don't intend to bilk my lodgings; but I have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.' 'Not so private,' answered Jones; I promise you, I have seen it ever since the second day of my coming to the house. 'Here will be some wet eyes on your departure,Poor Nancy, I pity her, faith!-Indeed, Jack, you have played the fool with that girl,-You have given her a longing, which I am afraid nothing will ever cure her of.'-Nightingale answered, What the devil would you have me do? Would you have me marry her to cure her?'No,' answered Jones, 'I would not have had you 'make love to her, as you have often done in my presence. I have been astonished at the blindness of her mother in never seeing it.' 'Pugh, see it!' cries Nightingale. 'What the devil should she see?' Why see,' said Jones, 'that you have made her daughter distractedly in love with you. The poor 'girl cannot conceal it a moment, her eyes are never ' off from you, and she always colours every time you come into the room. Indeed, I pity her heartily; for she seems fo be one of the best natured ' and honestest of human creatures.' 'And so,' answered Nightingale, according to your doctrine, one must not amuse one's self by any common gallantries with women, for fear they should fall in love with us.' 'Indeed, Jack,' said Jones, 'you wilfully misunderstand me; I do not fancy women ' are so apt to fall in love; but you have gone far

beyond common gallantries.'- What, do you suppose,' says Nightingale, that we have been 'a-bed together?' 'No, upon my honour,' answered Jones very seriously, 'I do not suppose so ill of you; nay, I will go farther, I do not imagine you have laid a regular premeditated scheme for the 'destruction of the quiet of a poor little creature, 'or have even foreseen the consequence: for I am sure thou art a very good-natured fellow; and such a one can never be guilty of a cruelty of that 'kind; but at the same time you have pleased your own vanity, without considering that this poor girl was made a sacrifice to it; and while you have had no design but of amusing an idle hour, you have actually given her reason to flatter herself, 'that you had the most serious designs in her favour. Prithee, Jack, answer me honestly; to what 'have tended all those elegant and luscious descriptions of happiness arising from violent and 'mutual fondness all those warm professions of 'tenderness, and generous disinterested love? Did you imagine she would not apply them? Or, speak ingenuously, did not you intend she should?' Upon my soul, Tom,' cries Nightingale, I did I not think this was in thee. Thou wilt make an admirable parson. So, I suppose, you would not go to bed to Nancy now, if she would let you?' 'No,' cries Jones, may I be d-n'd if I would.' Tom, Tom,' answered Nightingale, 'last night; ' remember last night.'

When ev'ry eye was clos'd, and the pale moon, And silent stars shone conscious of the theft.'

'Lookee, Mr. Nightingale,' said Jones, 'I am no canting hypocrite, nor do I pretend to the 'gift of chastity, more than my neighbours. I have been guilty with women, I own it; but am 'not conscious that I have ever injured any.-Nor would I, to procure pleasure to myself, be know'ingly the cause of misery to any human being.'

6

'Well, well,' said Nightingale, 'I believe you, and I am convinced you acquit me of any such thing.'

'I do, from my heart,' answered Jones, 'of having debauched the girl, but not from having gained her affections.'

If I have,' said Nightingale, 'I am sorry for it; 'but time and absence will soon wear off such impressions. It is a receipt I must take myself; for to confess the truth to you,-I never liked any girl half so much in my whole life; but I must "let you into the whole secret, Tom. My father hath provided a match for me, with a woman I 'never saw; and she is now coming to town, in 'order for me to make my addresses to her.'

At these words Jones burst into a loud fit of laughter; when Nightingale cried,- Nay, prithee 'don't turn me into ridicule. The devil take me ' if I am not half mad about this matter! my poor Nancy! Oh! Jones, Jones, I wish I had a for'tune in my own possession.'

I heartily wish you had,' cries Jones; for, if 'this be the case, I sincerely pity you both; but surely you don't intend to go away without taking your leave of her?'

'I would not,' answered Nightingale, undergo the pain of taking leave, for ten thousand pounds; 'besides, I am convinced, instead of answering any good purpose, it would only serve to inflame my poor Nancy the more. I beg, therefore, you would "not mention a word of it to-day, and in the even'ing, or to-morrow morning, I intend to depart.'

Jones promised he would not; and said, upon reflection he thought, as he had determined and was obliged to leave her, he took the most prudent method. He then told Nightingale, he should be very glad to lodge in the same house with him; and it was accordingly agreed between them, that Nightingale should procure him either the ground floor, or the two pair of stairs; for the young gen

tleman himself was to occupy that which was between them.

This Nightingale, of whom we shall be presently obliged to say a little more, was in the ordinary transactions of life a man of strict honour, and what is more rare among young gentlemen of the town, one of strict honesty too; yet in affairs of love he was somewhat loose in his morals; not that he was even here as void of principle as gentlemen sometimes are, and oftener affect to be; but it is certain he had been guilty of some indefensible treachery to women, and had, in a certain mystery, called Making Love, practised many deceits, which, if he had used in trade, he would have been counted the greatest villain upon earth.

But as the world, I know not well for what reason, agree to see this treachery in a better light, he was so far from being ashamed of his iniquities of this kind, that he gloried in them, and would often boast of his skill in gaining of women, and his triumphs over their hearts, for which he had before this time received some rebukes from Jones, who always expressed great bitterness against any misbehaviour to the fair part of the species, who, if considered, he said, as they ought to be, in the light of the dearest friends, were to be cultivated, honoured, and caressed with the utmost love and tenderness; but, if regarded as enemies, were a conquest of which a man ought rather to be ashamed than to value himself upon it.

CHAP. V.

A short Account of the History of Mrs. Miller, JONES this day eat a pretty good dinner for a sick man, that is to say, the larger half of a shoulder of mutton. In the afternoon he received an invitation from Mrs. Miller to drink tea; for that good woman having learnt, either by means of

Partridge, or by some other means natural or supernatural, that he had a connection with Mr. Allworthy, could not endure the thoughts of ing with him in an angry manner.

part

Jones accepted the invitation; and no sooner was the tea-kettle removed, and the girls sent out of the room, than the widow, without much preface, began as follows: 'Well, there are very surprising things happen in this world; but certainly it is a wonderful business, that I should have a ' relation of Mr. Allworthy in my house, and never 'know any thing of the matter. Alas! Sir, you little imagine what a friend that best of gentlemen hath been to me and mine. Yes, Sir, I am not ashamed to own it; it is owing to his goodness, that I did not long since perish for want, and leave my poor little wretches, two destitute, 'helpless, friendless orphans, to the care, or rather 'to the cruelty of the world.

'You must know, Sir, though I am now reduced to get my living by letting lodgings, I was born and bred a gentlewoman. My father was au 'officer in the army, and died in a considerable 'rank: but he lived up to his pay; and as that expired with him, his family, at his death, became beggars. We were three sisters. One of us had the good luck to die soon after of the small-pox; a lady was so kind as to take the se'cond out of charity, as she said, to wait upon her. The mother of this lady had been a servant to my grandmother; and having inherited a vast 'fortune from her father, which he had got by 'pawnbroking, was married to a gentleman of great estate and fashion. She used my sister so 'barbarously, often upbraiding her with her birth and poverty, calling her in derision a gentlewoman, that I believe she at length broke the 'heart of the poor girl. In short, she likewise died 'within a twelvemonth after my father. Fortune thought proper to provide better for me, and