nsume either
leisure, made me envy a condition of which I only saw the fair side;
insomuch, that the being one of them became even my ambition: a
disposition which they all carefully cultivated; and I wanted now
nothing but to restore my health, that I might be able to undergo the
ceremony of the initiation.

Conversation, example, in short all, contributed, in that house, to
corrupt my native parity, which had taken no root in education; whilst
now the inflammable principal of pleasure, so easily fired at my age,
made strange work within me, and all the modesty I was brought up in the
habit, not the instruction of, began to melt away like dew before the
sun's heat; not to mention that I made a vice of necessity, from the
constant fears I had of being turned out to starve.

I was soon pretty well recovered, and at certain hours allowed to range
all over the house, but cautiously kept from seeing any company till the
arrival of Lord B----, from Bath, to whom Mrs. Brown, in respect to his
experienced generosity on such occasions, proposed to offer the perusal
of that trinket of mine, which bears so great an imaginary value; and
his lordship being expected in town in less than a fortnight, Mrs. Brown
judged I would be entirely renewed in beauty and freshness by that time,
and afforded her the chance of a better bargain than she had driven with
Mr. Crofts.

In the meantime, I was so thoroughly, as they call it, brought over, so
tame to their whistle, that, had my cage door been set open, I had no
idea that I ought to fly anywhere, sooner than stay where I was; nor had
I the least sense of regretting my condition, but waited very quietly
for whatever Mrs. Brown should order concerning me; who on her side, by
herself and her agents, took more than the necessary precautions to lull
and lay asleep all just reflections on my destiny.

Preachments of morality over the left shoulder; a life of joy painted in
the gayest colours; caresses, promises, indulgent treatment; nothing,
in short, was wanting to domesticate me entirely and to prevent my going
out anywhere to get better advice. Alas! I dreamed of no such thing.

Hitherto I had been indebted only to the girls of the house for the
corruption of my innocence: their luscious talk, in which modesty was
far from respected, their description of their engagements with men,
had given me a tolerable insight into the nature and mysteries of their
profession, at the same time that t