Presently, assuming more courage, and seeking some di-
version from my uneasy thoughts, I ventured to lift up my
head a little, and sent my eyes on a course round the room,
wherein they met full tilt with those of a lady (for such
my extreme innocence pronounc'd her) sitting in a corner of
the room, dress'd in a velvet mantle (nota bene, in the 
midst of summer), with her bonnet off; squab-fat, red-faced,
and at least fifty.

     She look'd as if she would devour me with her eyes,
staring at me from head to foot, without the least regard
to the confusion and blushes her eyeing me so fixedly put
me to, and which were to her, no doubt, the strongest re-
commendation and marks of my being fit for her purpose.
After a little time, in which my air, person and whole
figure had undergone a strict examination, which I had, on
my part, tried to render favourable to me, by primming,
drawing up my neck, and setting my best looks, she advanced
and spoke to me with the greatest demureness:

     "Sweet-heart, do you want a place?"

     "Yes, and please you" (with a curtsy down to the 
ground).

     Upon this she acquainted me that she was actually 
come to the office herself to look out for a servant; that
she believed I might do, with a little of her instructions;
that she could take my very looks for a sufficient character;
that London was a very wicked, vile place; that she hoped I
would be tractable, and keep out of bad company; in short, 
she said all to me that an old experienced practitioner in
town could think of, and which was much more than was neces-
sary to take in an artless inexperienced country-maid, who
was even afraid of becoming a wanderer about the streets,
and therefore gladly jump'd at the first offer of a shelter,
especially from so grave and matron-like a lady, for such my
flattering fancy assured me this new mistress of mine was;
I being actually hired under the nose of the good woman that
kept the office, whose shrewd smiles and shrugs I could not 
help observing, and innocently interpreted them as marks of
her being pleased at my getting into place so soon; but, as
I afterwards came to know, these BELDAMS understood one an-
other very well, and this was a market where Mrs. Brown, my
mistress, frequently attended, on the watch for any fresh
goods that might offer there, for the use of her customers,
and her own profit.

     Madam was, however, so well pleased with her bargain, 
that fearing, I presume, lest better advice or some accident
might occasion my slipping through her fingers, she would
officiously take me in a coach to my inn, where, calling 
herself for my box, it was, I being present, delivered with-
out the least scruple or explanation as to where I was going.

     This being over, she bid the coachman drive to a shop
in St. Paul's Churchyard, where she bought a pair of gloves,
which she gave me, and thence renewed her directions to the
coachman to drive to her house in *** street, who accord-
ingly landed us at her door, after I had been cheer'd up and
entertain'd by the way with the most plausible flams, without
one syllable from which I could conclude anything but that I
was, by the greatest good luck, fallen into the hands of the
kindest mistress, not to say friend, that the varsal world
could afford; and accordingly I enter'd her doors with most
compleat confidence and exultation, promising myself that,
as soon as I should be a little settled, I would acquaint
Esther Davis with my rare good fortune.

     You may be sure the good opinion of my place was not
lessen'd by the appearance of a very handsome back parlour,
into which I was led and which seemed to me magnificently
furnished, who had never seen better rooms than the ordi-
nary ones in inns upon the road.  There were two gilt pier-
glasses, and a buffet, on which a few pieces of plates, set
out to the most shew, dazzled, and altogether persuaded me
that I must be got into a very reputable family.

     Here my mistress first began her part, with telling me
that I must have good spirits, and learn to be free with
her; that she had not taken me to be a common servant, to
do domestic drudgery, but to be a kind of companion to her;
and that if I would be a good girl, she would do more than
twenty mothers for me; to all which I answered only by the
profoundest and the awkwardest curtsies, and a few mono-
syllables, such as "yes! no! to be sure!"

     Presently my mistress touch'd the bell, and in came a
strapping maid-servant, who had let us in.  "Here, Martha,"
said Mrs. Brown--"I have just hir'd this young woman to
look after my linen; so step up and shew her her chamber;
and I charge you to use her with as much respect as you 
would myself, for I have taken a prodigious liking to her,
and I do not know what I shall do for her."

     Martha, who was an arch-jade, and, being used to this
decoy, had her cue perfect, made me a kind of half curtsy,
and asked me to walk up with her; and accordingly shew'd 
me a neat room, two pair of stairs backwards, in which 
there was a handsome bed, where Martha told me I was to