ouse: at the same time protesting, that any one that
should dare to protect me, should be prosecuted with the utmost rigour.

"They were scarcely out of the house, when my landlady came up to me
again, and begged my pardon, in a very different tone. For, though Mr.
Venables had bid her, at her peril, harbour me, he had not attended, I
found, to her broad hints, to discharge the lodging. I instantly promised
to pay her, and make her a present to compensate for my abrupt departure,
if she would procure me another lodging, at a sufficient distance; and
she, in return, repeating Mr. Venables' plausible tale, I raised her
indignation, and excited her sympathy, by telling her briefly the truth.

"She expressed her commiseration with such honest warmth, that I felt
soothed; for I have none of that fastidious sensitiveness, which a vulgar
accent or gesture can alarm to the disregard of real kindness. I was ever
glad to perceive in others the humane feelings I delighted to exercise;
and the recollection of some ridiculous characteristic circumstances,
which have occurred in a moment of emotion, has convulsed me with
laughter, though at the instant I should have thought it sacrilegious to
have smiled. Your improvement, my dearest girl, being ever present to me
while I write, I note these feelings, because women, more accustomed to
observe manners than actions, are too much alive to ridicule. So much so,
that their boasted sensibility is often stifled by false delicacy. True
sensibility, the sensibility which is the auxiliary of virtue, and the
soul of genius, is in society so occupied with the feelings of others, as
scarcely to regard its own sensations. With what reverence have I looked
up at my uncle, the dear parent of my mind! when I have seen the sense of
his own sufferings, of mind and body, absorbed in a desire to comfort
those, whose misfortunes were comparatively trivial. He would have been
ashamed of being as indulgent to himself, as he was to others. 'Genuine
fortitude,' he would assert, 'consisted in governing our own emotions,
and making allowance for the weaknesses in our friends, that we would not
tolerate in ourselves.' But where is my fond regret leading me!

"'Women must be submissive,' said my landlady. 'Indeed what could most
women do? Who had they to maintain them, but their husbands? Every woman,
and especially a lady, could not go through rough and smooth, as she had
done, to earn a little bread.'

"She w