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 eyes, to hear her unhappy story before he took, a barbarous advantage of her helpless situation, that he was irresistibly impelled partly by curiosity, partly by compassion to grant her request. Raising her, therefore, from the ground, he led her to a sopha, and seating himself by her, desired her, in a manner which encouraged her to repose a confidence in him, to begin her narrative.

"My story, Sir, will be soon told; and if you have as much humanity as you appear to have, you will, instead of wishing to make me the unhappiest of my sex, restore me to my afflicted parents, who are no doubt, at this moment half distracted on my account. My father and mother, Sir, are the best people in the world, and formerly lived in affluence; but my father, having met with misfortunes, thought it prudent to retire into the cheapest part of England he could hear of; as he was not able to live in his usual stile of life in London, and had too much pride to lessen his appearance in it.

"As my father had all the reason in the world to believe that he should have it in his power to give me a handsome fortune—I am his only child—he spared no expence in my education: I was indeed educated in such a manner that I might not disgrace a coronet, if it should fall to my lot. To see me well married, in the most fashion-