untry lodging. The chambers in the Temple her
husband possessed, she sold to her brother for 450 l. which, with her
husband's books of accounts, she lodged in her trustee's hands, who
being soon after burnt out by the fire in the paper buildings in the
temple (which broke out with such violence in the dead of night, that
he saved nothing but his life) she lost considerably. Not being
able to make out any bill, she could form no regular demand, and was
obliged to be determined by the honour of her husband's clients, who
though persons of the first fashion, behaved with very little honour
to her. The deceased had the reputation of a judicious lawyer, and
an accomplished gentleman, but who was too honest to thrive in his
profession, and had too much humanity ever to become rich. Of all
his clients, but one lady behaved with any appearance of honesty. The
countess dowager of Wentworth having then lost her only daughter the
lady Harriot (who was reputed the mistress of the duke of Monmouth)
told Mrs. Thomas, 'that she knew she had a large reckoning with the
deceased, but, says she, as you know not what to demand, so I know
not what to pay; come, madam, I will do better for you than a random
reckoning, I have now no child, and have taken a fancy to your
daughter; give me the girl, I will breed her as my own, and provide
for her as such when I die.' The widow thank'd her ladyship, but with
a little too much warmth replied, 'she would not part with her child
on any terms;' which the countess resented to such a degree, that she
would never see her more, and dying in a few years, left 1500 l. per
annum inheritance, at Stepney, to her chambermaid.

Thus were misfortunes early entailed upon this lady. A proposal which
would have made her opulent for life, was defeated by the unreasonable
fondness of her mother, who lived to suffer its dismal consequences,
by tasting the bitterest distresses. We have already observed, that
Mrs. Thomas thought proper to retire to the country with her daughter.
The house where she boarded was an eminent Cloth-worker's in the
county of Surry, but the people of the house proved very disagreeable.
The lady had no conversation to divert her; the landlord was an
illiterate man, and the rest of the family brutish, and unmannerly.
At last Mrs. Thomas attracted the notice of Dr. Glysson, who observing
her at church very splendidly dressed, sollicited her acquaintance. He
was a valuable piece of antiquity, bei