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when we are near losing it. I have known many man very brave and undaunted at his first commitment, who, when business began to thicken a little upon him, hath changed his note. It is no time to be saving in your condition." The keeper, who, after the liberality of Miss Matthews, and on seeing a purse of guineas in her hand, had conceived a great opinion of her wealth, no sooner heard that the sum which he had in intention entirely confiscated for his own use, was attempted to be broke in upon, but he thought it high time to be upon his guard. "To be sure," cries he, " Mr Murphy, life is sweet, as you say, that must be acknowledged; to be sure life is sweet; but sweet as it is, no persons can advance more than they are worth to save it. And, indeed, if the lady can command no more money than that little she mentions, she is to be commended for her unwillingness to part with any of it; for, to be sure, as she says, she will want every farthing of that to live like a gentlewoman till she comes to her trial. And, to be sure, as sweet as life is, people ought to take care to be able to live sweetly while they do live; besides, I cannot help saying, the lady shows herself to be what she is, by her abhorrence of perjury, which is certainly a very dreadful crime. And though the not kissing the book doth, as you say, make a great deal of difference; and if a man had a great time to live and repent, perhaps he might swallow it well enough; yet, when people comes to be near their end, (as who can venture to foretell what

will be the lady's case!) they ought to take care not to over-burden their conscience. I hope the lady's case will not be found murder; for I am sure I always wish well to all my prisoners, who show themselves to be gentlemen, or gentlewomen; yet one should always fear the worst."

Indeed, sir, you speak like an oracle,” answered the lady;" and one subornation of perjury would sit heavier on my conscience, than twenty such murders as I am guilty of."

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Nay, to be sure, madam," answered the keeper, "nobody can pretend to tell what provocation you must have had; and certainly it can never be imagined that a lady who behaves herself so handsomely as you have done ever since you have been under my keys, should be guilty of killing a man, without being very highly provoked to do it."

Mr Murphy was, I believe, going to answer, when he was called out of the room; after which nothing passed between the remaining persons worth relating, till Booth and the lady retired back again into the lady's apartment.

Here they fell immediately to commenting on the foregoing discourse; but as their comments were, I believe, the same with what most readers have made on the same occasion, we shall omit them. At last, Miss Matthews reminding her companion of his promise of relating to her what had befallen him since the interruption of their former acquaintance, he began, as is writ ten in the next Book of this History.

CHAP. I.

BOOK II.

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THE tea-table being removed, and Mr Booth and the lady left alone, he proceeded as follows: "Since you desire, madam, to know the particulars of my courtship to that best and dearest of women, whom I afterwards married, I will endeavour to recollect them as well as I can, at least all those incidents which are most worth relating to you.

"If the vulgar opinion of the fatality in marriage had ever any foundation, it surely appeared in my marriage with my Amelia. I knew her in

the first dawn of her beauty, and, I believe, madam, she had as much as ever fell to the share of a woman; but though I always admired her, it was long without any spark of love. Perhaps the general admiration which at that time pur sued her, the respect paid her by persons of the highest rank, and the numberless addresses which were made her by men of great fortune, prevented my aspiring at the possession of those charms, which seemed so absolutely out of my reach. However it was, I assure you, the acci dent which deprived her of the admiration of others, made the first great impression on my heart in her favour. The injury done to her beauty by the overturning of a chaise, by which, as you may well remember, her lovely nose was beat all to pieces, gave me an assurance that the woman who had been so much adored for the

charms of her person, deserved a much higher adoration to be paid to her mind; for that she was in the latter respect infinitely more superior to the rest of her sex than she had ever been in the former."

"I admire your taste extremely," cried the lady. "I remember perfectly well the great heroism with which your Amelia bore that misfortune."

"Good Heavens, madam!" answered he, "what a magnanimity of mind did her behaviour demonstrate! If the world hath extolled the firmness of soul in a man, who can support the loss of fortune; of a general, who can be composed after the loss of a victory; of a king, who can be contented with the loss of a crown; with what astonishment ought we to behold, with what praises to honour, a young lady, who can, with patience and resignation, submit to the loss of exquisite beauty; in other words, to the loss of fortune, power, glory, every thing which human nature is apt to court and rejoice in! What must be the mind, which can bear to be deprived of all these in a moment, and by an unfortunate trifling accident? which could support all this, together with the most exquisite torments of body, and with dignity, with resignation, without complaining, almost without a tear, undergo the most painful and dreadful operations of surgery in such a situation !" Here he stopped, and a torrent of tears gushed from his eyes; such tears as are apt to flow from a truly noble heart, at the hearing of any thing surprisingly great and glorious. As soon as he was able, he again proceeded thus:

"Would you think, Miss Matthews, that the misfortune of my Amelia was capable of any aggravation? I assure you, she hath often told me, it was aggravated with a circumstance which outweighed all the other ingredients. This was the cruel insults she received from some of her most intimate acquaintance; several of whom, after many distortions and grimaces, have turn ed their heads aside, unable to support their secret triumph, and burst into a loud laugh in her hearing.

"Good Heaven!" cried Miss Matthews, "what detestable actions will this contemptible passion of envy prevail on our sex to commit!" "An occasion of this kind, as she hath since told me, made the first impression on her gentle heart in my favour. I was one day in company with several young ladies, or rather young devils, where poor Amelia's accident was the subject of much mirth and pleasantry. One of these said, she hoped miss would not hold her head so high for the future. Another answered, 'I do not know, madam, what she may do with her head, but I am convinced she will never more turn up her nose at her betters.' Another cried, what a very proper match might now be made between Amelia and a certain captain, who had unfortunately received an injury in

the same part, though from no shameful cause. Many other sarcasms were thrown out, very unworthy to be repeated. I was hurt with perceiving so much malice in human shape; and cried out very bluntly, Indeed, ladies, you need not express such satisfaction at poor Miss Emily's accident; for she will still be the handsomest woman in England.' This speech of mine was afterwards variously repeated; by some to my honour, and by others represented in a contrary light. Indeed, it was often reported to be much ruder than it was. However, it at length reached Amelia's ears. She said, she was very much obliged to me, since I could have so much compassion for her as to be rude to a lady on her account.

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"About a month after the accident, when Amelia began to see company in a mask, I had the honour to drink tea with her. We were alone together, and I begged her to indulge my curiosity by shewing me her face. She answered, in a most obliging manner, Perhaps, Mr Booth, you will as little know me when my mask is off, as when it is on;' and at the same instant unmasked. The surgeon's skill was the least I considered. A thousand tender ideas rushed all at once upon my mind. I was unable to contain myself; and, eagerly kissing her hand, I cried, Upon my soul, madam, you never appeared to me so lovely as at this instant.' Nothing more remarkable passed at this visit; but I sincerely believe we were neither of us hereafter indifferent to each other.

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"Many months, however, passed after this, before I ever thought seriously of making her my wife. Not that I wanted sufficient love for Amelia. Indeed, it arose from the vast affection I bore her. I considered my own as a desperate fortune, hers as entirely dependant on her mother, who was a woman, you know, of violent passions, and very unlikely to consent to a match so highly contrary to the interest of her daughter. The more I loved Amelia, the more firmly I resolved within myself never to propose love to her seriously. Such a dupe was my understanding to my heart; and so foolishly did I imagine I could be the master of a flame to which I was every day adding fuel!

66 O, Miss Matthews! we have heard of men entirely masters of their passions, and of hearts which can carry this fire in them, and conceal it at their pleasure. Perhaps there may be such; but, if there are, those hearts may be compared, I believe, to damps, in which it is more difficult to keep fire alive than to prevent its blazing; in mine, it was placed in the midst of combustible matter.

"After several visits, in which looks and sighs had been interchanged on both sides, but without the least mention of passion in private, one day the discourse between us, when alone, happened to turn on love; I say happened, for I protest it was not designed on my side, and I

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"Amelia (O, I shall never forget the dear perturbation) appeared all confusion at this instant. She trembled, turned pale, and discovered how well she understood me, by a thousand more symptoms than I could take notice of, in a state of mind so very little different from her own. At last, with faultering accents, she said, I had made a very ill choice of a counsellor, in a matter in which she was so ignorant. Adding, at last, I believe, Mr Booth, you gentlemen want very little advice in these affairs, which you all understand better than we do.'

"I will relate no more of our conversation at present. Indeed, I am afraid I tire you with too many particulars."

"O, no!" answered she; "I should be glad to hear every step of an amour which had so tender a beginning. Tell me every thing you said or did, if you can remember it."

He then proceeded; and so will we in the next chapter.

CHAP. II.

Mr Booth continues his Story. In this Chapter there are some passages that may serve as a kind of touchstone, by which a young Lady may examine the heart of her Lover. I would advise, therefore, that every Lover be obliged to read it over in the presence of his Mistress, and that she carefully watch his emotions while he is reading.

"I was under the utmost concern," cries Booth, "when I retired from my visit, and had reflected coolly on what I had said. I now saw plainly that I had made downright love to Amelia; and I feared, such was my vanity, that I had already gone too far, and been too successful. Feared, do I say? Could I fear what I hoped? How shall I describe the anxiety of my mind!"

You need give yourself no great pain," cried Miss Matthews, " to describe what I can so easily guess. To be honest with you, Mr Booth, I do not agree with your lady's opinion, that the men have a superior understanding in the matters of love. Men are often blind to the passions of women; but every woman is as quicksighted as a hawk on these occasions; nor is there one article in the whole science which is not understood by all our sex.'

"

"However, madam," said Mr Booth, "Lnow undertook to deceive Amelia. I abstained three days from seeing her. To say the truth, I endeavoured to work myself up to a resolution of leaving her forever; but when I could not so far subdue my passion-But why do I talk nonsense, of subduing passion? I should say, when no other passion could surmount my love, I returned to visit her. And now I attempted the strangest project which ever entered into the silly head of a lover. This was, to persuade Amelia that I was really in love in another place, and had literally expressed my meaning when I asked her advice, and desired her to be my confidante.

"I therefore forged a meeting to have been between me and my imaginary mistress since I had last seen Amelia, and related the particu lars, as well as I could invent them, which had passed at our conversation.

"Poor Amelia presently swallowed the bait; and, as she hath told me since, absolutely believed me to be in earnest. Poor dear love! how should the sincerest of hearts have any idea of deceit? for, with all her simplicity, I assure you she is the most sensible woman in the world."

"It is highly generous and good in you," said Miss Matthews, with a sly sneer," to impute to honesty what others would perhaps call credulity."

"I protest, madam," answered he, " I do her no more than justice. A good heart will at all times betray the best head in the world. Well, madam, my angel was now, if possible, more confused than before. She looked so silly, you can hardly believe it.”

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Yes, yes, I can," answered the lady, with a laugh; "I can believe it. Well, well, go on." "After some hesitation," cried he, "my Amelia said faintly to me,' Mr Booth, you use me very ill; you desire me to be your confidante, and conceal from me the name of your mistress.'- Is it possible then, madam,' answered I, that you cannot guess her, when I tell you she is one of your acquaintance, and lives in this town? My acquaintance?' said she; La, Mr Booth!-In this town? I-I-I thought I could have guessed for once; but I have an ill talent that way. I will never attempt to guess any thing again. Indeed, I do her an injury when I pretend to represent her manner. Her manner, look, voice, every thing, was inimitable; such sweetness, softness, innocence, modesty! Upon my soul, if ever man could boast of his resolution, I think I might now, that I abstained from falling prostrate at her feet, and adoring her. However, I triumphed. Pride, I believe, triumphed; or, perhaps, love got the better of love. We once more parted; and I promised, the next time I saw her, to reveal the name of my mistress.

"I now had, I thought, gained a complete

victory over myself; and no small compliments did I pay to my own resolution. In short, I triumphed as cowards and niggards do when they flatter themselves with having given some supposed instance of courage or generosity; and my triumph lasted as long; that is to say, till my ascendant passion had a proper opportunity of displaying itself in its true and natural colours.

"Having hitherto succeeded so well in my own opinion, and obtained this mighty selfconquest, I now entertained a design of exerting the most romantic generosity, and of curing that unhappy passion which I perceived I had raised in Amelia.

"Among the ladies who had expressed the greatest satisfaction at my Amelia's misfortune, Miss Osborne had distinguished herself in a very eminent degree. She was, indeed, the next in beauty to my angel; nay, she had disputed the preference, and had some, among her admirers, who were blind enough to give it in her favour."

"Well," cries the lady, "I will allow you to call them blind; but Miss Osborne was a charming girl."

"She certainly was handsome," answered he, " and a very considerable fortune; so I thought my Amelia would have little difficulty in believing me, when I fixed on her as my mistress. And I concluded, that my thus placing my affections on her known enemy would be the surest method of eradicating every tender idea with which I had been ever honoured by Amelia.

"Well, then, to Amelia I went. She received me with more than usual coldness and reserve; in which, to confess the truth, there appeared to me more of anger than indifference, and more of dejection than of either. After some short introduction, I revived the discourse of my amour, and presently mentioned Miss Osborne as the lady whose name I had concealed; adding, that the true reason why I did not mention her before was, that I apprehended there was some little distance between them, which I hoped to have the happiness of accommodating.

6

"Amelia answered with much gravity, If you know, sir, that there is any distance between us, I suppose you know the reason of that distance; and then, I think, I could not have expected to be affronted by her name. I would not have you think, Mr Booth, that I hate Miss Osborne. No! Heaven is my witness, I despise her too much. Indeed, when I reflect how much I loved the woman who hath treated me so cruelly, I own it gives me pain. When I lay, as I then imagined, and as all about me believed, upon my death-bed, in all the agonies of pain and misery, to become the object of laughter to my dearest friend! O, Mr Booth, it is a cruel reflection! and could I after this have

expected from you-But why not from you, to whom I am a person entirely indifferent, if such a friend could treat me so barbarously?'

"During the greatest part of this speech, the tears streamed from her bright eyes. I could endure it no longer. I caught up the word indifferent, and repeated it, saying, Do you think then, madam, that Miss Emily is indifferent to me? Yes, surely I do,' answered she; ' I know I am. Indeed, why should I not be indifferent to you?'- Have my eyes,' said I, then, declared nothing?'-O, there is no need of your eyes,' answered she: Your tongue hath declared, that you have singled out of all womankind my greatest, I will say my basest, enemy. I own, I once thought that character would have been no recommendation to you. why did I think so? I was born to deceive myself.'

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"I then fell on my knees before her; and, forcing her hand, cried out, O, my Amelia, I can bear no longer. You are the only mistress of my affections! You are the deity I adore!" In this style I ran on for above two or three minutes, what it is impossible to repeat; till a torrent of contending passions, together with the surprise, overpowered her gentle spirits, and she fainted away in my arms. To describe my sensation till she returned to herself, is not in my power."

"You need not," cries Miss Matthews: "O, happy Amelia! why had I not been blessed with such a passion.”

66

"I am convinced, madam," continued he, you cannot expect all the particulars of the tender scene which ensued. I was not enough in my senses to remember it all. Let it suffice to say, that that behaviour with which Amelia, while ignorant of its motive, had been so much displeased, when she became sensible of that motive, proved the strongest recommendation to her favour, and she was pleased to call it generous."

"Generous!" repeated the lady, " and so it was; almost beyond the reach of humanity. I question whether you ever had an equal.”

Perhaps the critical reader may have the same doubt with Miss Matthews; and, lest he should, we will here make a gap in our history, to give him an opportunity of accurately considering, whether this conduct of Mr Booth was natural or no; and, consequently, whether we have, in this place, maintained or deviated from that strict adherence to universal truth, which we profess above all other historians.

CHAP. III.

The Narrative continued. More of the touch

stone.

BOOTH made a proper acknowledgment of

Miss Matthews's civility, and then renewed his story.

"We were upon the footing of lovers; and Amelia threw off her reserve more and more, till at length I found all that return of my affection which the tenderest lover can require.

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My situation would now have been a paradise, had not my happiness been interrupted with the same reflections I have already mentioned; had I not, in short, concluded, that I must derive all my joys from the almost certain ruin of that dear creature to whom I should owe them.

"This thought haunted me night and day, till I at last grew unable to support it. I there fore resolved, in the strongest manner, to lay it before Amelia.

"One evening, then, after the highest professions of the most disinterested love, in which Heaven knows my sincerity, I took an occassion to speak to Amelia in the following manner :Too true is it, I am afraid, my dearest creature, that the highest human happiness is imperfect. How rich would be my cup, was it not for one poisonous drop which embitters the whole! O, Amelia, what must be the consequence of my ever having the honour to call you mine! You know my situation in life, and you know your own. I have nothing more than the poor provision of an ensign's commission to depend on; your sole dependance is on your mother. Should any act of disobedience defeat your expectations, how wretched must your lot be with me! O, Amelia, how ghastly an object to my mind is the apprehension of your distress! Can I bear to reflect a moment on the certainty of your foregoing all the conveniences of life; on the possibility of your suffering all its most dreadful inconveniences! What must be my misery, then, to see you in such a situation, and to upbraid myself with being the accursed cause of bringing you to it! Suppose, too, in such a season, I should be summoned from you; could I submit to see you encounter all the hazards, the fatigues, of war with me? You could not yourself, however willing, support them a single campaign. What then! must I leave you to starve alone, deprived of the tenderness of a husband; deprived, too, of the tenderness of the best of mothers, through my means? a woman most dear to me, for being the parent, the nurse, and the friend of my Amelia! But, O, my sweet creature! carry your thoughts a little farther. Think of the tenderest consequences, the dearest pledges, of our love! Can I bear to think of entailing beggary on the posterity of my Amelia? on our-0, Heavens! on our children! On the other side, (is it possible even to mention the word?) I will not, must not, cannot, cannot part with you! What must we do, Amelia? It is now I sincerely ask your advice. What advice can I give you,'

said she, in such an alternative? Would to Heaven we had never met.'

"These words were accompanied with a sigh, and a look inexpressibly tender, the tears, at the same time, overflowing all her lovely cheeks. I was endeavouring to reply, when I was interrupted by what soon put an end to the scene.

"Our amour had already been buzzed all over the town; and it came at last to the ears of Mrs Harris. I had, indeed, observed of late a great alteration in that lady's behaviour towards me, whenever I visited at the house; nor could I for a long time, before this evening, ever obtain a private interview with Amelia; and now, it seems, I owed it to her mother's intention of overhearing all that passed between

us.

"At the period, then, above mentioned, Mrs Harris burst from the closet where she had hid herself, and surprised her daughter reclining on my bosom, in all that tender sorrow I have just described. I will not attempt to paint the rage of the mother, or the daughter's confusion, or my own. Here are very fine doings, indeed! cries Mrs Harris: You have made a noble use, Amelia, of my indulgence, and the trust I reposed in you. As for you, Mr Booth, I will not accuse you; you have used my child as I ought to have expected. I may thank myself for what hath happened:' with much more of the same kind, before she would suffer me to speak. But at last I obtained a hearing, and offered to excuse my poor Amelia, who was ready to sink into the earth under the oppression of grief, by taking as much blame as I could on myself. Mrs Harris answered, 'No, sir; I must say you are innocent in comparison with her. Nay, I can say, I have heard you use dissuasive arguments; and, I promise you, they are of weight. I have, I thank Heaven, one dutiful child, and I shall henceforth think her my only one.' She then forced the poor, trembling, fainting Amelia out of the room; which when she had done, she began very coolly to reason with me on the folly, as well as iniquity, which I had been guilty of; and repeated to me almost every word I had before urged to her daughter. In fine, she at last obtained of me a promise that I would soon go to my regiment, and submit to any misery, rather than that of being the ruin of Amelia.

"I now, for many days, endured the greatest torments which the human mind is, I believe, capable of feeling; and I can honestly say, I tried all the means, and applied every argument which I could raise, to cure me of my love; and, to make these the more effectual, I spent every night in walking backwards and forwards in the sight of Mrs Harris's house, where I never failed to find some object or other which raised some tender idea of my lovely Amelia, and almost drove me to distraction."

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