o this was, but I say I came afterwards to know
something more plainly. I would have withdrawn, and disrobed, being
somewhat too thin in that dress, unlaced and open-breasted, as if I had
been in my shift; but it could not be, and I was obliged to dance
afterwards with six or eight gentlemen most, if not all of them, of the
first rank; and I was told afterwards that one of them was the Duke of
M[onmou]th.

About two or three o'clock in the morning the company began to decrease;
the number of women especially dropped away home, some and some at a
time; and the gentlemen retired downstairs, where they unmasked and went
to play.

Amy waited at the room where they played, sat up all night to attend
them, and in the morning when they broke up they swept the box into her
lap, when she counted out to me sixty-two guineas and a half; and the
other servants got very well too. Amy came to me when they were all
gone; "Law, madam," says Amy, with a long gaping cry, "what shall I do
with all this money?" And indeed the poor creature was half mad with
joy.

I was now in my element. I was as much talked of as anybody could
desire, and I did not doubt but something or other would come of it; but
the report of my being so rich rather was a balk to my view than
anything else; for the gentlemen that would perhaps have been
troublesome enough otherwise, seemed to be kept off, for Roxana was too
high for them.

There is a scene which came in here which I must cover from human eyes
or ears. For three years and about a month Roxana lived retired, having
been obliged to make an excursion in a manner, and with a person which
duty and private vows obliges her not to reveal, at least not yet.

At the end of this time I appeared again; but, I must add, that as I had
in this time of retreat made hay, &c., so I did not come abroad again
with the same lustre, or shine with so much advantage as before. For as
some people had got at least a suspicion of where I had been, and who
had had me all the while, it began to be public that Roxana was, in
short, a mere Roxana, neither better nor worse, and not that woman of
honour and virtue that was at first supposed.

You are now to suppose me about seven years come to town, and that I had
not only suffered the old revenue, which I hinted was managed by Sir
Robert Clayton, to grow, as was mentioned before, but I had laid up an
incredible wealth, the time considered; and had I yet had the least
thought