ir,' said she, 'that whatever
you think fit to do or say to me, it shall be all a secret as it is, as
much as if I were in my grave.'

He was astonished at her discourse, and said gravely to her, 'Madam,
you are a stranger to me, but it is very unfortunate that you should be
let into the secret of the worst action of my life, and a thing that I
am so justly ashamed of, that the only satisfaction of it to me was,
that I thought it was known only to God and my own conscience.' 'Pray,
sir,' says she, 'do not reckon the discovery of it to me to be any part
of your misfortune. It was a thing, I believe, you were surprised
into, and perhaps the woman used some art to prompt you to it; however,
you will never find any just cause,' said she, 'to repent that I came
to hear of it; nor can your own mouth be more silent in it that I have
been, and ever shall be.'

'Well,' says he, 'but let me do some justice to the woman too; whoever
she is, I do assure you she prompted me to nothing, she rather declined
me. It was my own folly and madness that brought me into it all, ay,
and brought her into it too; I must give her her due so far. As to
what she took from me, I could expect no less from her in the condition
I was in, and to this hour I know not whether she robbed me or the
coachman; if she did it, I forgive her, and I think all gentlemen that
do so should be used in the same manner; but I am more concerned for
some other things that I am for all that she took from me.'

My governess now began to come into the whole matter, and he opened
himself freely to her. First she said to him, in answer to what he had
said about me, 'I am glad, sir, you are so just to the person that you
were with; I assure you she is a gentlewoman, and no woman of the town;
and however you prevailed with her so far as you did, I am sure 'tis
not her practice. You ran a great venture indeed, sir; but if that be
any part of your care, I am persuaded you may be perfectly easy, for I
dare assure you no man has touched her, before you, since her husband,
and he has been dead now almost eight years.'

It appeared that this was his grievance, and that he was in a very
great fright about it; however, when my governess said this to him, he
appeared very well pleased, and said, 'Well, madam, to be plain with
you, if I was satisfied of that, I should not so much value what I
lost; for, as to that, the temptation was great, and perhaps she was
poor and wanted