nts, to discharge the lodging. I instantly
promised to pay her, and make her a present to compensate for my abrupt
departure, if she would procure me another lodging, at a sufficient
distance; and she, in return, repeating Mr. Venables' plausible tale, I
raised her indignation, and excited her sympathy, by telling her briefly
the truth.

"She expressed her commiseration with such honest warmth, that I felt
soothed; for I have none of that fastidious sensitiveness, which a
vulgar accent or gesture can alarm to the disregard of real kindness. I
was ever glad to perceive in others the humane feelings I delighted
to exercise; and the recollection of some ridiculous characteristic
circumstances, which have occurred in a moment of emotion, has convulsed
me with laughter, though at the instant I should have thought it
sacrilegious to have smiled. Your improvement, my dearest girl, being
ever present to me while I write, I note these feelings, because women,
more accustomed to observe manners than actions, are too much alive to
ridicule. So much so, that their boasted sensibility is often stifled by
false delicacy. True sensibility, the sensibility which is the auxiliary
of virtue, and the soul of genius, is in society so occupied with the
feelings of others, as scarcely to regard its own sensations. With what
reverence have I looked up at my uncle, the dear parent of my mind! when
I have seen the sense of his own sufferings, of mind and body, absorbed
in a desire to comfort those, whose misfortunes were comparatively
trivial. He would have been ashamed of being as indulgent to himself,
as he was to others. 'Genuine fortitude,' he would assert, 'consisted in
governing our own emotions, and making allowance for the weaknesses in
our friends, that we would not tolerate in ourselves.' But where is my
fond regret leading me!

"'Women must be submissive,' said my landlady. 'Indeed what could most
women do? Who had they to maintain them, but their husbands? Every
woman, and especially a lady, could not go through rough and smooth, as
she had done, to earn a little bread.'

"She was in a talking mood, and proceeded to inform me how she had been
used in the world. 'She knew what it was to have a bad husband, or
she did not know who should.' I perceived that she would be very much
mortified, were I not to attend to her tale, and I did not attempt to
interrupt her, though I wished her, as soon as possible, to go out in
search of a new