ould
not well endure.

Presently, assuming more courage, and seeking some diversion from my
uneasy thoughts, I ventured to lift up my head a little, and sent my
eyes on a course round the room, where they met full tilt with those
of a lady (for such my extreme innocence pronounced her) sitting in a
corner of the room, dressed in a velvet mantle (in the midst of summer),
with her bonnet off; squat, fat, red-faced, and at least fifty.

She looked as if she would devour me with her eyes, staring at me from
head to foot, without the least regard to the confusion and blushes her
eyeing me so fixedly put me to, and which were to her, no doubt, the
strongest recommendation and marks of my being fit for her purpose.
After a little time, in which my air, person and whole figure had
undergone a strict examination, which I had, on my part, tried to render
favourable to me, by primming, drawing up my neck, and setting my best
looks, she advanced and spoke to me with the greatest demureness:

"Sweet-heart, do you want a place?

"Yes, and please you," (with a curtsey down to the ground).

Upon this she acquainted me she was actually come to the office herself,
to look out for a servant; that she believed I might do, with a little
of her instruction; that she could take my very looks for a sufficient
character; that London was a very wicked, vile, place; that she hoped I
would be tractable, and keep out of bad company; in short, she said all
to me that an old experienced practitioner in town could think of,
and which was much more than was necessary to take in an artless
inexperienced country maid, who was even afraid of becoming a wanderer
about the streets, and therefore gladly jumped at the first offer of a
shelter, especially from so grave and matron-like a lady, for such
my flattering fancy assured me this new mistress of mine was, I being
actually hired under the nose of the good woman that kept the office,
whose shrewed smiles and shrugs I could not help observing, and
innocently interpreted them as marks of being pleased at my getting
into place so soon: but, as I afterwards came to know, these Beldams
understood one another very well, and this was a market where Mrs.
Brown, my mistress, frequently attended, on the watch for any fresh
goods that might offer there, for the use of her customers, and her own
profit.

Madam was, however, so well pleased with her bargain that fearing I
presume, lest better advice or some acc