imself out of a condition to
go through all the weapons with them, and crown the night with a getting
a mistress; so that seeing me in a loose undress, he did not doubt but I
was one of the misses of the house, sent in to repair his loss of time;
but though he seized that notion, and a very obvious one it was, without
hesitation, yet, whether my figure made a more than ordinary impression
on him, or whether it was his natural politeness, he addressed me in
a manner far from rude, though still on the foot of one of the house
pliers come to amuse him; and giving me the first kiss that I ever
relished from man in my life, asked me if I could favour him with my
company, assuring me that he would make it worth my while: but had
not even new-born love, that true refiner of lust, opposed so sudden a
surrender, the fear of being surprised by the house was a sufficient bar
to my compliance.

I told him then, in a tone set by love itself, that for reasons I had
not time to explain to him. I could not stay with him, and might even
ever see him again, with a sigh at these words, which broke from the
bottom of my heart. My conqueror, who, as he afterwards told me, had
been struck with my appearance, and liked me as much as he could think
of liking any one in my supposed way of life, asked me briskly at once,
if I would be kept by him, and that he would take a lodging for me
directly, and relieve me from any engagements he presumed I might be
under to the house.

Rash, sudden, undigested, even dangerous as this offer might be from a
perfect stranger, and that stranger a giddy boy, the prodigious love
I was struck with for him, had put a charm into every objection: I not
resisting, and blinded me to every objection; I could, at that instant,
have died for him: think if I could resist an invitation to live with
him! Thus my heart, beating strong to the proposal, dictated my answer,
after scarce a minute's pause, that I would accept of his offer, and
make my escape to him in what way he pleased, and that I would be
entirely at his disposal, let it be good or bad. I have often since
wondered that so great an easiness did not disgust him, or make me too
cheap in his eyes, but my fate had so appointed it, that in his fears of
the hazzard of the town, he had been some time looking out for a girl to
take into keeping, and my person happening to hit his fancy, it was by
one of those miracles reserved to love, that we struck the bargain in
t