 extraordinary Respect, and he had such an
Opinion of my Virtue, that, as he often profess'd, he believ'd, if he should
offer any thing else, I should reject him with Contempt; he soon understood from
me that I was a Widow, that I had arriv'd at Bristol from Virginia by the last
Ships; and that I waited at the Bath till the next Virginia Fleet should arrive,
by which I expected considerable Effects; I understood by him, that he had a
Wife, but that the Lady was distemper'd in her Head, and was under the Conduct
of her own Relations, which he consented to, to avoid any Reflection that might
be cast upon him for mismanaging her Cure; and in the mean time he came to the
Bath to divert his Thoughts under such a melancholly Circumstance.
    My Landlady, who of her own accord encourag'd the Correspondence on all
Occasions, gave me an advantageous Character of him, as a Man of Honour and of
Virtue, as well as of a great Estate; and indeed I had Reason to say so of him
too, for tho' we lodg'd both on a Floor, and he had frequently come into my
Chamber, even when I was in Bed, and I also into his, yet he never offered any
thing to me farther than a Kiss, or so much as sollicited me to any thing till
long after, as you shall hear.
    I frequently took Notice to my Landlady of his exceeding Modesty, and she
again used to tell me, she believ'd it was so from the Beginning; however she
used to tell me that she thought I ought to expect some Gratifications from him
for my Company, for indeed he did as it were engross me. I told her, I had not
given him the least Occasion to think I wanted it, or that I would accept of it
from him; She told me, she would take that part upon her, and she manag'd it so
dextrously, that the first time we were together alone, after she had talk'd
with him, he began to enquire a little into my Circumstances, as how I had
subsisted my self since I came on shore, and whether I did not want Money? I
stood off very boldly, I told him that tho' my Cargoe of Tobacco was damag'd,
yet that it was not quite lost: that the Merchant that I had been consigned to,
had so honestly managed for me that I had not wanted, and that I hop'd,
