beat with its usual regularity, for she was at first under some surprise and apprehension; but these were relieved almost as soon as raised, when the man, pulling off his hat, asked her, in a very submissive manner, if her ladyship did not expect to meet another lady; and then proceeded to inform her that he was sent to conduct her to that lady. Sophia could have no possible suspicion of any falsehood in this account: she therefore mounted resolutely behind the fellow, who conveyed her safe to a town about five miles distant, where she had the satisfaction of finding the good Mrs. Honour: for as the soul of the waiting-woman was wrapped up in those very habiliments which used to inwrap her body, she could by no means bring herself to trust them out of her sight; upon these, therefore, she kept guard in person, while she detached the aforesaid fellow after her mistress, having given him all proper instructions. They now debated what course to take, in order to avoid the pursuit of Mr. Western, who they knew would send after them in a few hours. The London road had such charms for Honour, that she was desirous of going on directly; alleging that as Sophia could not be missed till eight or nine the next morning, her pursuers would not be able to overtake her, even though they knew which way she had gone; but Sophia had too much at stake to venture any thing to chance, nor did she dare trust too much to her tender limbs, in a contest which was to be decided only by swiftness: she resolved, therefore, to travel across the country for at least twenty or thirty miles, and then to take the direct road to London; so, having hired horses to go twenty miles one way, when she intended to go twenty miles the other, she set forward with the same guide behind whom she had ridden from her father's house; the guide having now taken up behind him, in the room of Sophia, a much heavier as well as much less lovely burden; being indeed a huge portmanteau well stuffed with those outside ornaments, by means of which the fair Honour hoped to gain many conquests, and, finally, to make her fortune in London city. When they had gone about two hundred paces from the inn on the London road, Sophia rode up to the guide, and with a voice much fuller of honey than was ever that of Plato, though his mouth is supposed to have been a beehive, begged him to take the first turning which led towards Bristol.

Reader, I am not superstitious, nor any great believer of modern miracles: I do not, therefore, deliver the following as a certain truth; for, indeed, I can scarce credit it myself: but the fidelity of an historian obliges me to relate what has been confidently asserted. The horse, then, on which the guide rode, is reported to have been so charmed by Sophia's voice, that he made a full stop, and expressed an unwillingness to proceed any farther. Perhaps, however, the fact may be true, and less miraculous than it has been represented, since the natural cause seems adequate to the effect; for as the guide at that moment desisted from a constant application of his armed right heel (for, like Hudibras, he wore but one spur), it is more than probable that this omission alone might occasion the beast to stop, especially as this was very frequent with him at other times. But if the voice of Sophia had really an effect on the horse, it had very little on the rider: he answered somewhat surlily, that measter had ordered him to go a different way, and that he should lose his place if he went any other than that he was ordered. Sophia, finding all her persuasions had no effect, began now to add irresistible charms to her voice; charms which, according to the proverb, make the old mare trot instead of standing still; charms to which modern ages have attributed all that irresistible force which the ancients imputed to perfect oratory: in a word, she promised she would reward him to his utmost expectation. The lad was not totally deaf to these promises, but he disliked their being indefinite; for though perhaps he had never heard that word, yet that in fact was his objection. He said, Gentlevolks did not consider the case of poor volks; that he had like to have been turned away the other day for riding about the country with a gentleman from Squire Allworthy's, who did not reward him as he should have done. "With whom?" says Sophia, eagerly. "With a gentleman from Squire Allworthy's," repeated the lad, “the squire's son, I think they call 'un."- "Whither? which way did he go?" says Sophia. "Why, a little o' one side o' Bristol, about twenty miles off," answered the lad." Guide me," says Sophia, " to the same place, and I'll give thee a guinea, or two, if one is not sufficient." "To be certain," said the boy, "it is honestly worth two when your ladyship considers what a risk Irun; but, however, if your ladyship will promise me the two guin

eas, I'll e'en venture: to be certain it is a sinful thing to ride about my measter's horses; but one comfort is, I can only be turned away, and two guineas will partly make me amends."

The bargain being thus struck, the lad turned aside into the Bristol road, and Sophia set forward in pursuit of Jones, highly contrary to the remonstrances of Mrs. Honour, who had much more desire to see London than to see Mr. Jones: for indeed she was not his friend with her mistress, as, he had been guilty of some neglect in certain pecuniary civilities, which are by custom due to the waiting-gentlewoman in all love affairs, and more especially in those of a clandestine kind. This we im pute rather to the carelessness of his temper than to any want of generosity; but perhaps she derived it from the latter motive. Certain it is that she hated him very bitterly on that account, and resolved to take every opportunity of injuring him with her mistress. It was therefore highly unlucky for her that she had gone to the very same town and inn whence Jones had started, and still more unlucky was she in having stumbled on the same guide, and on this accidental discovery which Sophia had made. Our travellers arrived at Hambrook* at the break of day, where Honour was, against her will, charged to inquire the route which Mr. Jones had taken. Of this, indeed, the guide himself could have informed them; but Sophia, I know not for what reason, never asked him a question. When Mrs. Honour had made her report from the landlord, Sophia, with much difficulty, procured some indifferent horses, which brought her to the inn where Jones had been confined, rather by the misfortune of meeting with a surgeon than by having met with a broken head. Here Honour being again charged with a commission of inquiry, had no sooner applied herself to the landlady, and had described the person of Mr. Jones, than that sagacious woman began, in the vulgar phrase, to smell a rat. When Sophia, therefore, entered the room, instead of answering the maid, the landlady, addressing herself to the mistress, began the following speech: "Good-lack-a-day! why there now, who would have thought it? I protest, the loveliest couple that ever eye beheld. I'fackins, madam, it is no wonder the squire ran on so about your lady

* This was the village where Jones met the Quaker.

ship. He told me indeed you was the finest lady in the world, and to be sure so you be. Mercy on him, poor heart! I bepitied him, so I did, when he used to hug his pillow, and call it his dear Madam Sophia. I did all I could to dissuade him from going to the wars: I told him there were men enow that were good for nothing else but to be killed, that had not the love of such fine ladies."-" Sure," says Sophia," the good woman is distracted."—"No, no," cries the landlady, "I am not distracted. What, does your ladyship think I don't know, then? I assure you he told me all."-"What saucy fellow," cries Honour, " told you any thing of my lady?" "No saucy fellow," answered the landlady, "but the young gentleman you inquired after; and a very pretty young gentleman he is; and he loves Madam Sophia Western to the bottom of his soul."-" He love my lady? I'd have you know, woman, she is meat for his master."-66 Nay, Honour," said Sophia, interrupting her, "don't be angry with the good woman; she intends no harm."—" No, marry, don't I," answered the landlady, imboldened by the soft accents of Sophia; and then launched into a long narrative too tedious to be here set down, in which some passages dropped that gave a little offence to Sophia, and much more to her waitingwoman, who hence took occasion to abuse poor Jones to her mistress the moment they were alone together, saying that he must be a very pitiful fellow, and could have no love for a lady whose name he would thus prostitute in an alehouse. Sophia did not see his behaviour in so very disadvantageous a light, and was, perhaps, more pleased with the violent raptures of his love (which the landlady exaggerated as much as she had done every other circumstance) than she was offended with the rest; and, indeed, she imputed the whole to the extravagance, or rather ebulliency of his passion, and to the openness of his heart. This incident, however, being afterward revived in her mind, and placed in the most odious colours by Honour, served to heighten and give credit to those unlucky occurrences at Upton, and assisted the waiting-woman in her endeavours to make her mistress depart from that inn without seeing Jones. The landlady, finding Sophia intended to stay no longer than till her horses were ready, and that without either eating or drinking, soon withdrew; when Honour began to take her mistress to task (for indeed, she used great

freedom), and, after a long harangue, in which she reminded her of her intention to go to London, and gave frequent hints of the impropriety of pursuing a young fellow, she at last concluded with this serious exhortation: "For Heaven's sake, madam, consider what you are about, and whither you are going." This advice to a lady, who had already rode near forty miles, and in no very agreeable season, may seem foolish enough. It may be supposed she had well considered and resolved this already; nay, Mrs. Honour, by the hints she threw out, seemed to think so; and this, I doubt not, is the opinion of many readers, who have, I make no doubt, been long since well convinced of the purpose of our heroine, and have heartily condemned her for it as a wanton baggage. But, in reality, this was not the case. Sophia had been lately so distracted between hope and fear, her duty and love to her father, her hatred to Blifil, her compassion and (why should we not confess the truth?) her love for Jones; which last, the behaviour of her father, of her aunt, of every one else, and more particularly of Jones himself, had blown into a flame, that her mind was in that confused state which may be truly said to make us ignorant of what we do, or whither we go, or rather, indeed, indifferent as to the consequence of either. The prudent and sage advice of her maid produced, however, some cool reflection; and she at length determined to go to Gloucester, and thence to proceed directly to London : but unluckily, a few miles before she entered that town, she met the hack-attorney, who, as is before mentioned, had dined there with Mr. Jones. This fellow, being well known to Mrs. Honour, stopped and spoke to her; of which Sophia at that time took little notice, more than to inquire who he was: but having had a more particular account from Honour of this man afterward at Gloucester, and hearing of the great expedition he usually made in travelling, for which, as has been before observed, he was particularly famous; recollecting likewise that she had overheard Mrs. Honour inform him that they were going to Gloucester, she began to fear lest her father might, by this fellow's means, be able to trace her to that city; wherefore, if she should there strike into the London road, she apprehended he would certainly be able to overtake her. She therefore altered her resolution; and having hired horses to go a week's journey, a way which she did not intend to travel, she