
and that I know not how we shall get over; we are strangers to each other.


"Oh, madam," interrupted Mrs. Eccles,
though it is not my custom to take in lodgers without having a character, yet I can have no scruple with regard to a lady of your appearance. As for me, I have •ed a great many years in this neighbourhood, and am not afraid of having my character enquired into.

She spoke this with a little warmth, which made Henrietta imagine she expected the same degree of confidence she had shown: so making a merit of necessity, she appeared very well satisfied, and immediately took possession of her new apartment.
MRS. Eccles being summoned into her shop by a customer, miss Courteney desired her to send up pen, ink, and paper, being resolved to write to miss Woodby that night, and acquaint her with the disappointment she had met with. The maid soon appeared with candles and all the materials for writing; delivering at the same time her mistress's compliments to the

young lady, and a request that she would favour her with her company to supper. Miss Courteney promised to wait on her, provided she was alone; and, sitting down, wrote the following letter to her new friend.
YOU will no doubt, my dear miss Woodby, be both surprised and grieved to know that your kind intentions have been frustrated; and that by forgetting to give me a direction, your recommendation to Mrs. Egret has proved useless to me. By a mistake of the chairman, who I desired to enquire where Mrs. Egret lived, I was brought to another millener's, and she not being able to direct me where to find her, I am obliged to take up my lodging with a stranger. It was my apprehensions of what has befallen me, that induced me to trust you with my secret, a secret of the highest importance to me; and most generously did you repay my confidence by your ready assistance. It was my ill fortune which ordered it so, that I should not profit by your kindness. However, my gratitude is equally engaged, and since I observe nothing disagreeable in the behaviour of the person in whose house I now am, I shall endeavour to make myself easy here till I hear from you. I long to see you,

to tell you my unhappy story, to have your compassion, or rather to be justified by your approbation of what I have been compelled by circumstances to do. Oh! my dear miss, how unhappy is that mind, which, with right
