rcy on his sinful
soul!' With some difficulty, I obtained my arrears of wages; but
asking--such is the spirit-grinding consequence of poverty and
infamy--for a character for honesty and economy, which God knows I
merited, I was told by this--why must I call her woman?--'that it would
go against her conscience to recommend a kept mistress.' Tears started 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