Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/247

 objects of our Creator's displeasure, is certainly very reasonable. This is what Shakespeare calls 'Bearing our own misfortunes on the back of such as have before endured the like.' On the other hand, to rejoice with thankfullness when we escape any misery which generally attends our species, with a mixture of compassion for their sufferings, is rather laudable than blamable." Camilla was happy to find David did not condemn her thoughts, and then desired him to tell what his were. "I was musing," said he, "on the scene we saw, and what that man told us in Covent Garden, with the oddness of his character; he seemed to take such a pleasure in telling us the faults of his neighbours, and yet looked with such a good-humoured countenance, as if railing would be the last thing he could delight in." Cynthia replied, it was very likely he was a good man, but that there is in some natures a prodigious love of talking; and, from a want of any ideas of their own, they are obliged to fall on the actions of their neighbours; and as it is to be feared they often find more ill than good in their acquaintance, that love of talking naturally leads them into scandal. She then turned to Valentine, and desired to know what bad taken up his thoughts in such manner as to make him so silent. Valentine answered, he was revolving in his thoughts the miserable situation the man was in who  was in love with a woman whom his circumstances in life debarred him from all hopes of its ever being  reasonable  for him to acquaint with his passion. While he spoke this, he fixed his eyes steadfastly on Cynthia; she observing it, blushed, and made him no answer.

While they were discoursing in this manner, David observed a woman behind a counter in a little shop, sobbing and crying as if her heart would break; he had a curiosity to know what was the