. And now, as the objection which she had
represented as an invincible one, to my lying the first night at his lodgings
(which were studiously calculated for freedom of intrigues), on the account of
my maiden fears and terrors at the thoughts of going to a gentleman's chambers,
and being alone with him in bed, was surmounted, she pretended to persuade me,
in favour to him, that I should go there to him whenever he pleas'd, and still
keep up all the necessary appearances of working with her, that I might not
lose, with my character, the prospect of getting a good husband, and at the same
time her house would be kept the safer from scandal. All this seem'd so
reasonable, so considerate to Mr. Norbert, that he never once perceived that she
did not want him to resort to her house, lest he might in time discover certain
inconsistencies with the character she had set out with to him: besides that,
this plan greatly flattered his own ease, and views of liberty.
    Leaving me then to my much wanted rest, he got up, and Mrs. Cole, after
settling with him all points relating to me, got him undiscovered out of the
house. After which, as I was awake, she came in and gave me due praises for my
success. Behaving too with her usual moderation and disinterestedness, she
refus'd any share of the sum I had thus earned, and put me into such a secure
and easy way of disposing of my affairs, which now amounted to a kind of little
fortune, that a child of ten years old might have kept the account and property
of them safe in its hands.
    I was now restor'd again to my former state of a kept mistress, and used
punctually to wait on Mr. Norbert at his chambers whenever he sent a messenger
for me, which I constantly took care to be in the way of, and manag'd with so
much caution that he never once penetrated the nature of my connections with
Mrs. Cole; but indolently given up to ease and the town dissipations, the
perpetual hurry of them hinder'd him from looking into his own affairs, much
less to mine.
    In the mean time, if I may judge from my own experience, none are better
paid, or better treated, during their reign, than the mistresses of those who,
enervate by nature, debaucheries, or age, have the least employment for the sex:
sensible that a woman must be satisfy'd some way, they ply her
