of her disposition,
thought proper to alter her method of proceeding, and, for the present,
suspended that theme by which she found her fair lodger disobliged.
Resolved to reconcile Monimia to life, before she would again recommend
Ferdinand to her love, she endeavoured to amuse her imagination, by
recounting the occasional incidents of the day, hoping gradually to decoy
her attention to those sublunary objects from which it had been
industriously weaned. She seasoned her conversation with agreeable
sallies; enlarged upon the different scenes of pleasure and diversion
appertaining to this great metropolis; practised upon her palate with the
delicacies of eating; endeavoured to shake her temperance with repeated
proffers and recommendations of certain cordials and restoratives, which
she alleged were necessary for the recovery of her health; and pressed
her to make little excursions into the fields that skirt the town, for
the benefit of air and exercise.

While this auxiliary plied the disconsolate Monimia on one hand, Fathom
was not remiss on the other. He now seemed to have sacrificed his
passion to her quiet; his discourse turned upon more indifferent
subjects. He endeavoured to dispel her melancholy with arguments drawn
from philosophy and religion. On some occasions, he displayed all his
fund of good humour, with a view to beguile her sorrow; he importuned her
to give him the pleasure of squiring her to some place of innocent
entertainment; and, finally, insisted upon her accepting a pecuniary
reinforcement to her finances, which he knew to be in a most consumptive
condition.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

MONIMIA'S HONOUR IS PROTECTED BY THE INTERPOSITION OF HEAVEN.

With that complacency and fortitude which were peculiar to herself, this
hapless stranger resisted all those artful temptations. Her sustenance
was barely such as exempted her from the guilt of being accessory to her
own death; her drink was the simple element. She encouraged no discourse
but that which turned upon the concerns of her immortal part. She never
went abroad, except in visits to a French chapel in the neighbourhood;
she refused the proffered assistance of our adventurer with equal
obstinacy and politeness, and with pleasure saw herself wasting towards
that period of mortality which was the consummation of her wish. Yet her
charms, far from melting away with her constitution, seemed to triumph
over the decays of nature. Her sha