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 able ſenſe of the word, was his continual wiſh; and he was juſt on the point of ſeeing me ſo married, when the failure of a merchant, in whoſe hands a conſiderable part of his property was lodged, had ſuch an effect on the gentleman who paid his addreſſes to me, that he immediately diſcovered his mercenary diſpoſition, by meanly withdrawing them. This additional diſappointment lowered my father's ſpirits, and toured his temper to ſuch a degree, chat he determined to bury himſelf in obſcurity, & to have as few connexions with the world as poſſible. “At the beginning of laſt ſummer we took leave of London, and were in one day conveyed to our retirement in a little village about fifty miles from hence; for my father, eager to fly from a place in which he had received ſuch a blow to his pride, was determined to travel with the utmoſt expedition. A more lonely ſpot is not, perhaps, to be found in England; but as my father was ſick of ſociety, the lonelineſs of it was rather agreeable to him: it was however, far otherwiſe to my mother and to me. "When we had been in this retreat a few months, an elderly lady took lodgings at a farm-houſe near us, who appearing ex- tremely like a gentlewoman, and like a per- ſon who had been reduced from affluent to