talents!--O my cruel, cruel
brother! had it not been for thee, I had not been thrown upon so
pernicious and so despicable a plotter!--But proceed, Sir; pray proceed.'

At that part, Canst thou, O fatal prognosticator! tell me where my
punishment will end?--she sighed. And when I came to that sentence,
praying for my reformation, perhaps--Is that there? said she, sighing
again. Wretched man!--and shed a tear for thee.--By my faith, Lovelace,
I believe she hates thee not! she has at least a concern, a generous
concern for thy future happiness--What a noble creature hast thou
injured!

She made a very severe reflection upon me, on reading the words--On your
knees, for me, beg her pardon--'You had all your lessons, Sir, said she,
when you came to redeem me--You was so condescending as to kneel: I
thought it was the effect of your own humanity, and good-natured
earnestness to serve me--excuse me, Sir, I knew not that it was in
consequence of a prescribed lesson.'

This concerned me not a little; I could not bear to be thought such a
wretched puppet, such a Joseph Leman, such a Tomlinson. I endeavoured,
therefore, with some warmth, to clear myself of this reflection; and she
again asked my excuse: 'I was avowedly, she said, the friend of a man,
whose friendship, she had reason to be sorry to say, was no credit to any
body.'--And desired me to proceed.

I did; but fared not much better afterwards: for on that passage where
you say, I had always been her friend and advocate, this was her
unanswerable remark: 'I find, Sir, by this expression, that he had always
designs against me; and that you all along knew that he had. Would to
Heaven, you had had the goodness to have contrived some way, that might
not have endangered your own safety, to give me notice of his baseness,
since you approved not of it! But you gentlemen, I suppose, had rather
see an innocent fellow-creature ruined, than be thought capable of an
action, which, however generous, might be likely to loosen the bands of a
wicked friendship!'

After this severe, but just reflection, I would have avoided reading the
following, although I had unawares begun the sentence, (but she held me
to it:) What would I now give, had I permitted you to have been a
successful advocate! And this was her remark upon it--'So, Sir, you see,
if you had been the happy means of preventing the evils designed me, you
would have had your friend's thanks for it when he came to his
co