Which contains nothing but very common occurrences.
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 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 intentions, feels a consciousness of something wrong in its resolutions! Direct for me by the name of Benson, at Mrs. Eccles’s, millener, in Charles street. Adieu. I sign the pretty name you gave me.
CLELIA
Henrietta had just sealed her letter, when somebody tapp’d at her door; she opened it immediately, and, seeing Mrs. Eccles, asked her pardon for not waiting on her before. Mrs. Eccles told her, that her little supper being ready, she came to see if she was at leisure.
Miss Courteney found the cloth spread in the parlour, and an elegant supper was served up. Mrs. Eccles did not fail to apologize frequently for the meanness of her entertainment, and was gratified with as many assurances from her fair guest, that no apology was necessary. During the repast, Mrs. Eccles entertained her with an account of the newest fashions, the most celebrated performers of the opera and playhouses, little pieces of scandal, and the like topicks of conversation, which Henrietta had often heard discussed among her more polite acquaintance, and indeed almost the only ones that engage the attention during the recess of the card-table.
The millener then turning the discourse to the accident that procured her so agreeable a lodger, artfully pursued her hints till the young lady found herself obliged to satisfy in some degree her curiosity concerning her situation.
Though she was naturally communicative, even to a fault; yet she did not think proper to disclose herself farther, than to tell her, that she had been obliged to come to London upon some affairs of consequence, which could not be settled till the arrival of her brother, who was every day expected from his travels.
This account was so near the truth, that miss Courteney, in the simplicity of her own heart, thought it could not fail of being believed. However, the millener who knew the world very well, conceived there was something extraordinary in the case—nothing less than a love-intrigue: nor did this suspicion give her any uneasiness. She was one of those convenient persons with whom a lady, upon paying a certain sum of money, might lie-in6 privately, and be properly attended. She made no scruple of accommodating with lodgings a young wife, whose husband, for certain family reasons, visits her only now and then; and as she generally found her account in such sort of lodgers, she seldom desired, and indeed was seldom encumbered with any other.
The youth, beauty, and elegance of miss Courteney, the introductory letter so oddly conceived, her apparent perplexity and concern upon her disappointment of the lodgings she had expected, raised suspicions, which the story she now heard, confirmed; and not doubting but this affair would prove beneficial to her, she exerted her utmost endeavours to please her fair lodger, and engage her to an entire confidence.
When the clock struck eleven, Henrietta rose up, in order to retire to her own chamber, to which Mrs. Eccles officiously attended her; having taken leave of her at the door, she bolted it on the inside, and, after recommending herself to the protection of Heaven, went to bed, but not to rest. A thousand disquietudes kept her waking till the morning, when she sunk into a slumber that lasted till eleven o’clock.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she was informed, by the strong light in her chamber, that the morning was far advanced; and, finding by her watch, which lay on a chair near her bed-side, how much she had exceeded her usual time, (for she was a very early riser) she hurried on her cloaths, and went down stairs, being extremely anxious to get her letter sent to miss Woodby: she went directly into the shop, supposing she should find Mrs. Eccles there; but was excessively surprised to hear from the apprentice, that her mistress was not yet up.
“I suppose,” said miss Courteney, “she rested no better than myself last night, which was the cause of my lying so late this morning.”
“La! ma’am,” replied the girl, “my mistress is never up before eleven or twelve.” “Indeed!” said the young lady, dissembling her concern at a circumstance which gave her no favourable opinion of her landlady. “But, madam,” added the girl, “you may have your breakfast whenever you please to order it.” She then called the maid, whom miss Courteney ordered to fetch a porter, being determined to have her letter delivered into miss Woodby’s own hands, if possible. A porter was soon found, who undertook to carry the letter to Hammersmith as directed; and this affair being dispatched, Henrietta ordered some chocolate7 for her breakfast, and retired to her own chamber.