reverie to what she suffered, deprived
of her parents, exiled from her friends and country, reduced to the brink
of wanting the most indispensable necessaries of life, in a foreign land,
where she knew not one person to whose protection she could have
recourse, from the inexpressible woes that environed her. She complained
to Heaven that her life was protracted, for the augmentation of that
misery which was already too severe to be endured; for she shuddered at
the prospect of being utterly abandoned in the last stage of mortality,
without one friend to close her eyes, or do the last offices of humanity
to her breathless corse. These were dreadful reflections to a young lady
who had been born to affluence and splendour, trained up in all the
elegance of education, by nature fraught with that sensibility which
refines the sentiment and taste, and so tenderly cherished by her
indulgent parents, that they suffered not the winds of Heaven to visit
her face too roughly.

Having passed the night in such agony, she rose at daybreak, and, hearing
the chapel bell toll for morning prayers, resolved to go to this place of
worship, in order to implore the assistance of Heaven. She no sooner
opened her chamber door, with this intent, than she was met by Madam la
Mer, who, after having professed her concern for what had happened
overnight, and imputed Mr. Fathom's rudeness to the spirit of
intoxication, by which she had never before seen him possessed, she
endeavoured to dissuade Monimia from her purpose, by observing, that her
health would be prejudiced by the cold morning air; but finding her
determined, she insisted upon accompanying her to chapel, on pretence of
respect, though, in reality, with a view to prevent the escape of her
beauteous lodger. Thus attended, the hapless mourner entered the place,
and, according to the laudable hospitality of England, which is the only
country in Christendom where a stranger is not made welcome to the house
of God, this amiable creature, emaciated and enfeebled as she was, must
have stood in a common passage during the whole service, had not she been
perceived by a humane gentlewoman, who, struck with her beauty and
dignified air, and melted with sympathy at the ineffable sorrow which was
visible in her countenance, opened the pew in which she sat, and
accommodated Monimia and her attendant. If she was captivated by her
first appearance, she was not less affected by the deportment of her