it.' 'If she had not been poor, sir ----,' says my
governess, 'I assure you she would never have yielded to you; and as
her poverty first prevailed with her to let you do as you did, so the
same poverty prevailed with her to pay herself at last, when she saw
you were in such a condition, that if she had not done it, perhaps the
next coachman might have done it.'

'Well,' says he, 'much good may it do her. I say again, all the
gentlemen that do so ought to be used in the same manner, and then they
would be cautious of themselves. I have no more concern about it, but
on the score which you hinted at before, madam.' Here he entered into
some freedoms with her on the subject of what passed between us, which
are not so proper for a woman to write, and the great terror that was
upon his mind with relation to his wife, for fear he should have
received any injury from me, and should communicate if farther; and
asked her at last if she could not procure him an opportunity to speak
with me. My governess gave him further assurances of my being a woman
clear from any such thing, and that he was as entirely safe in that
respect as he was with his own lady; but as for seeing me, she said it
might be of dangerous consequence; but, however, that she would talk
with me, and let him know my answer, using at the same time some
arguments to persuade him not to desire it, and that it could be of no
service to him, seeing she hoped he had no desire to renew a
correspondence with me, and that on my account it was a kind of putting
my life in his hands.

He told her he had a great desire to see me, that he would give her any
assurances that were in his power, not to take any advantages of me,
and that in the first place he would give me a general release from all
demands of any kind. She insisted how it might tend to a further
divulging the secret, and might in the end be injurious to him,
entreating him not to press for it; so at length he desisted.

They had some discourse upon the subject of the things he had lost, and
he seemed to be very desirous of his gold watch, and told her if she
could procure that for him, he would willingly give as much for it as
it was worth. She told him she would endeavour to procure it for him,
and leave the valuing it to himself.

Accordingly the next day she carried the watch, and he gave her thirty
guineas for it, which was more than I should have been able to make of
it, though it seems it cost