ings; there's
nobody that knows him will think such a thing of him.' 'Well, well,'
says my governess, 'that's none of my business; if it was, I warrant I
should find there was something of that kind in it; your modest men in
common opinion are sometimes no better than other people, only they
keep a better character, or, if you please, are the better hypocrites.'

'No, no,' says her friend, 'I can assure you Sir ---- is no hypocrite,
he is really an honest, sober gentleman, and he has certainly been
robbed.' 'Nay,' says my governess, 'it may be he has; it is no
business of mine, I tell you; I only want to speak with him; my
business is of another nature.' 'But,' says her friend, 'let your
business be of what nature it will, you cannot see him yet, for he is
not fit to be seen, for he is very ill, and bruised very much,' 'Ay,'
says my governess, 'nay, then he has fallen into bad hands, to be
sure,' And then she asked gravely, 'Pray, where is he bruised?' 'Why,
in the head,' says her friend, 'and one of his hands, and his face, for
they used him barbarously.' 'Poor gentleman,' says my governess, 'I
must wait, then, till he recovers'; and adds, 'I hope it will not be
long, for I want very much to speak with him.'

Away she comes to me and tells me this story. 'I have found out your
fine gentleman, and a fine gentleman he was,' says she; 'but, mercy on
him, he is in a sad pickle now. I wonder what the d--l you have done
to him; why, you have almost killed him.' I looked at her with
disorder enough. 'I killed him!' says I; 'you must mistake the person;
I am sure I did nothing to him; he was very well when I left him,' said
I, 'only drunk and fast asleep.' 'I know nothing of that,' says she,
'but he is in a sad pickle now'; and so she told me all that her friend
had said to her. 'Well, then,' says I, 'he fell into bad hands after I
left him, for I am sure I left him safe enough.'

About ten days after, or a little more, my governess goes again to her
friend, to introduce her to this gentleman; she had inquired other ways
in the meantime, and found that he was about again, if not abroad
again, so she got leave to speak with him.

She was a woman of a admirable address, and wanted nobody to introduce
her; she told her tale much better than I shall be able to tell it for
her, for she was a mistress of her tongue, as I have said already. She
told him that she came, though a stranger, with a single design of
doing