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 on the same intention of a morning-walk.

He was, as I afterwards learn'd, in the course of the intimacy, which this little accident gave birth to, an old batchelor turn'd of sixty, but of a fresh, vigorous complexion, insomuch that he scarce mark'd five and forty, having never rack'd, or forc'd his constitution, by permitting his desires to over tax his ability.

As to his birth, and condition; his parents, honest and fail'd mechanicks, had by the best traces he could get of them, left him an infant orphan on the parish; so that it was from a charity school, that by honesty and industry he made his way into a merchant's compting-house, from whence being sent to a house in Cadiz, he there, by his talents and activity, acquired a fortune, but an immense one; with which he return'd to his native country, where he could not, however, so much as fish one single relation out of the obscurity he was born in. Taking then a taste for retirement, and pleasd to enjoy