 be; and upon revolving the circumstances in his mind, it instantaneously struck him that the daring Farnford must have bribed that infamous woman to entrap you to her house. This idea no sooner occurred, than a thousand circumstances seemed to enforce its conviction. Farnford's character, which though unstained by actual villany, is loose and unprincipled, assured him he would not be scrupulous in effecting

his ends by whatever means in his power. He knew besides that the woman was in his pay, and to lay him under further contributions, she might be induced to misrepresent your behaviour, conscious that the knowledge of your being a woman of rank and character must have checked his hopes and restrained his liberality to herself. Mr. Roatsley began to suspect that your acquaintance with Mrs. Weldon might have originated also from some such machinations, and he instantly determined to acquaint me with his suspicions; and having enquired at our old lodgings for our present residence with the eagerness of a man of honour anxious to secure virtue and innocence from destruction, he hastened to this house without loss of time; for me only he enquired, for to me only could so delicate an explanation be made, but I was unluckily from home. Next morning he repeated his visit, but

being engaged in business, he was denied admittance. On his return home, however, he encountered a gentleman with whom he is particularly intimate, and who in the confidence of friendship confessed to him how amazed he had been to meet with a young lady not only of the most elegant but of the most innocent and amiable appearance at the house of his profligate relation, Mrs. Weldon, who from being now notoriously infamous, was wholly excluded all honourable society: his friend added, that this abandoned woman had represented the young lady, whose name was Seymour, as a girl of light character and dependant fortune, but having been more than once in her company, this injurious error had appeared to him so apparent, that he had thought it incumbent on him to atone for it by representing to her the hazards of her situation, an information that had operated so violently on her spirits as

fully convinced him how entirely she must have been deceived as to the character of her companion.
Amiable, generous Roatsley! May not I call the man so, my Sophia, who has so humanely interested himself in my affairs. How many, in a similar situation, would have contented themselves with leaving me to my fate, especially after that perplexed series of unfortunate events, which might have too justly led him to regard me with contempt; how few would have
