Page:Maria, or, The wanderer reclaim'd.pdf/18

Rh The company of women in my own circumſtances, once deteſtable, was now by me, and became agreeable. I dreſſed, talked, I appeared like them. I began to have no objection to more wine than uſual and, in ſhort, made haſty and large ſteps to the broad road to deſtruction. Mr. S*, when he came to our lodgings, frequently found me from home, and frequently in company which he did not ſeem to approve. Imagining I could better my fortune, I grew regardleſs of him. He caſt me off: and I ſet up for myſelf! Miſerable and thoughtleſs! As I was agreeable, I wanted not what call company! But I ſoon found, that the way of life was beyond imagination horrible. Riot, intemperance, forfeit and diſeaſe, ſoon became my familiars! and, amidſt all, I was a priſoner; for having contracted ſome debt: I was ſeized and conveyed to a ſpunging houſe; the maſter of which made up matter for me, as he pretended, and I gave him my note. A note, I never could pay, and therefore I took up my abode with him, and became a common wretch, a public nuiſance.

My little girl had ſhared her mother’s fortune, and was with me in this horrid houſe; but whenever I beheld her, it was with unutterable ſorrow, through dread that her fate ſhould be like mine! At length, to conſummate my miſery, after a life of the moſt execrable ſuffering for four months,