Page:Maria, or, The wanderer reclaim'd.pdf/6

Rh particular gave me information of many things, which ſerved to haſten my ruin, by enflaming my deſires, already ſufficiently warm.

I should have told you, that my father, originally bred to the law, but neither qualified for, nor fond of his profeſſion, had given over all attention to it, and ſettled himſelf in a village not many miles from London; having a ſufficient fortune to live in decent retirement. We kept two maids, and a man, who was a kind of Scrub, footman, butler, gardener, all things by turns, and nothing well. In the pariſh church, the moſt public place I frequented, a gentleman of pleaſing appearance one Sunday attracted my notice; attracted it the rather, becauſe I quickly perceived, with no ſmall ſatisfaction, that I had attracted his. He was a lodger (I ſoon found out for the ſummer ſeaſon in our village. This was all I could learn concerning him. I was impatient for the following Sunday. The wiſhed-for day arrived. Again the gentleman was at church. And his whole attention and devotion ſeemed to be offered to me. But can I expreſs the fooliſh elation of heart, I felt, when in the evening the maid (whom I mentioned above, as a ready inſtructreſs ſlipt a letter into my hand, and told me, it was from a gentleman, who had fallen in love with me at church. Thus began our amour.