acquired any polite Name, or indeed any which is not too coarse
to be admitted in this History.
    After this Preface, which we thought necessary to account for a Character of
which some of my Country and Collegiate Readers might possibly doubt the
Existence, I shall proceed to what more immediately regards Mrs. Booth. The
Reader may be pleased to remember that Mr. Trent was present at the Assembly to
which Booth and his Wife were carried by Mrs. James, and where Amelia was met by
the noble Peer.
    His Lordship seeing there that Booth and Trent were old Acquaintance, failed
not, to use the Language of Sportsmen, to put Trent on upon the Scent of Amelia.
For this Purpose that Gentleman visited Booth the very next Day, and had pursued
him close ever since. By his Means therefore my Lord learn'd that Amelia was to
be at the Masquerade, to which Place she was dogg'd by Trent in a Sailor's
jacket, who meeting my Lord according to Agreement, at the Entrance of the
Opera-House, like the Fourlegged Gentlemen of the same Vocation, made a dead
Point, as it is called, at the Game.
    My Lord was so satisfied and delighted with his Conversation at the
Masquerade with the supposed Amelia, and the Encouragement which in reality she
had given him, that when he saw Trent the next Morning, he embraced him with
great Fondness, gave him a Bank Note of 100l. and promised him both the Indies
on his Success, of which he began now to have no manner of Doubt.
    The Affair that happened at the Gaming Table, was likewise a Scheme of
Trent's, on a Hint given by my Lord to him to endeavour to lead Booth into some
Scrape or Distress, his Lordship promising to pay whatever Expence Trent might
be led into by such Means. Upon his Lordship's Credit therefore the Money lent
to Booth was really advanced. And hence arose all that seeming Generosity, and
Indifference as to the Payment, Trent being satisfied with the Obligation
conferred on Booth, by Means of which he hoped to effect his Purpose.
    But now the Scene was totally changed; for Mrs. Atkinson, the Morning after
the Quarrel, beginning seriously to recollect that she had carried the Matter
rather too far, and might really injure Amelia's Reputation, a Thought to which
the warm Pursuit of her own Interest had a good deal blinded her at the Time,
resolved to visit my Lord himself, and to let him into the whole Story; for, as
she had succeeded already in her favourite Point, she thought