CHAP. IX.

Which treats of Matters of a very different Kind from thofe in the preceding Chapter.

IN the evening Jones met his Lady again, and a

long converfation again enfued between them; but as it confifted only of the fame ordinary occurrences as before, we shall avoid mentioning particulars, which we defpair of rendering agreeable to the Reader; unless he is one whofe devotion to the fair fex, like that of the papists to their Saints, wants to be raised by the help of pictures. But I am fo far from defiring to exhibit fuch pictures to the public, that I would wish to draw a curtain over those that have been lately fet forth in certain French novels; very bungling copies of which have been prefented us here, under the name of tranflations.

Jones grew ftill more and more impatient to fee Sophia; and finding, after repeated interviews with Lady Bellafton, no likelihood of obtaining this by her means; (for, on the contrary, the Lady began to treat even the mention of the name of Sophia with refentment) he refolved to try fome other method. He made no doubt but that Lady Bellafton knew where his angel was, fo he thought it most likely, that fome of her fervants fhould be acquainted with the fame fecret. Partridge therefore was employed to get acquainted with those servants, in order to fish this fecret out of them.

Few fituations can be imagined more uneafy than that to which his poor Mafter was at prefent reduced; for befides the difficulties he met with in discovering Sophia, befides the fears he had of having difobliged her, and the affurances he had received from Lady Bellafton of the refolution which Sophia had taken against him, and of her having purposely concealed herself from him, which he had fufficient reafon to believe might be true: he had ftill a difficulty to combat, which it was not in the power of his Mistress to remove, however kind her inclination might have been. This was the expofing of her to be difinherited of all her father's eftate, the almost inevitable confequence of their coming together without a confent, which he had no hopes of ever obtaining.

Add to all these the many obligations which Lady Bellafton, whofe violent fondness we can no longer conceal, had heaped upon him; fo that by her means he was now become one of the best dreffed men about town; and was not only reliev ed from thofe ridiculous diftreffes we have before mentioned, but was actually raised to a state of affluence, beyond what he had ever known.

Now though there are many gentlemen who very well reconcile it to their confciences to poffefs themselves of the whole fortune of a woman, without making her any kind of return; yet to a mind, the proprietor of which does not deferve to be hanged, nothing is, I believe, more irksome

than to fupport love with gratitude only; efpecially when inclination pulls the heart a contrary way. Such was the unhappy cafe of Jones, for tho' the virtuous love he bore to Sophia, and which left very little affection for any other woman had been entirely out of the queftion, he could never have been able to have made an adequate return to the generous paffion of this Lady, who had indeed been once an object of defire; but was now entered at least into the autumn of life; though fhe wore all the gaiety of youth both in her dress and manner; nay, fhe contrived ftill to maintain the roses in her cheeks; but thefe, like flowers forced out of feafon by art, had none of that lively blooming freshnefs with which nature, at the proper time, bedecks her own productions. She had, befides, a certain imperfection, which renders fome flowers, though very beautiful to the eye, very improper to be placed in a wilderness of sweets, and what above all others is most disagreeable to the breath of Love.

Though Jones faw all thefe difcouragements on the one fide, he felt his obligations full as ftrongly on the other; nor did he lefs plainly difcern the ardent paffion whence thofe obligations proceeded, the extreme violence of which if he failed to equal, he well knew the Lady would think him ungrateful; and, what is worfe, he would have thought himself fo. He knew the tacit confideration upon which all her favors were conferred; and as his neceffity obliged him to accept them, fo his honor,

he concluded, forced him to pay the price. This therefore he refolved to do, whatever misery it coft him, and to devote himself to her, from that great principle of juftice, by which the laws of fome countries oblige a debtor, who is no otherwife capable of discharging his debt, to become the flave of his creditor.

While he was meditating on these matters, he received the following note from the Lady.

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"A very foolish, but a very perverfe accident has happened fince our last meeting, which makes it improper I should see you any more at the ufual place. I will, if poffible, contrive some other place by to-morrow. In the mean » time, adieu.

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This disappointment, perhaps, the Reader may conclude, was not very great; but if it was, he was quickly relieved; for in lefs than an hour af terwards another note was brought him from the fame hand, which contained as follows:

"I have altered my mind fince I wrote; a change, which, if you are no stranger to the tenderest ,, of all paffions, you will not wonder at. I am ,, now refolved to fee you this evening, at my own house, whatever may be the confequence. Come to me exactly at feven; I dine abroad, but will be at home by that time. A day, I

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find, to those that fincerely love, feems longer than I imagined.

"If you should accidentally be a few moments bid them show you into the drawing

before me,

room.

To confefs the truth, Jones was less pleased with this last epistle, than he had been with the former, as he was prevented by it from complying with the earnest entreaties of Mr. Nightingale, with whom he had now contracted much intimacy and friendfhip. These entreaties were to go with that young gentleman and his company to a new play, which was to be acted that evening, and which a very large party had agreed to damn, from fome diflike they had taken to the author, who was a friend to one of Mr. Nightingale's acquaintance. And this fort of fun our Hero, we are afhamed to confefs, would willingly have preferred to the above kind appointment; but his honor got the better of his inclination.

Before we attend him to this intended interview with the Lady, we think proper to account for both the preceding notes, as the Reader may poffibly be not a little furprised at the imprudence of Lady Bellafton in bringing her lover to the very house where her rival was lodged.

First then, the Mistress of the houfe where these lovers had hitherto met, and who had been