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gratify his wishes at all events, he concluded, with a fagacity almoft univerfal on thefe occafions, that of two evils, to marry without his confent was lefs than to marry against it; and one evening, after the lovers had spent the afternoon by themfelves, they went out in a kind of frolic, which Mercator had proposed in the vehemence of his paffion, and to which Flavilla had confented in the giddinefs of her indifcretion, and were married at May-Fair.

In the first interval of recollection after this precipitate ftep, Mercator confidered, that he ought to be the first who acquainted his father of the new alliance which had been made in his family: but as he had not fortitude enough to do it in perfon, he expreffed it in the beft terms he could conceive by a letter; and after fuch an apology for his conduct as he had been used to make to himself, he requested that he might be permitted to prefent his wife for the parental benediction, which alone was wanting to complete his felicity.

The old gentleman, whofe character I cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been contrived to palliate falfe principles and diffolute manners, had been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town. He had often heard Flavilla toafted by rakes of quality, and had often seen her at publick places. Her beauty and

her

her dependence, the gaiety of her drefs, the multitude of her admirers, the levity of her conduct, and all the circumftances of her fituation, had concurred to render her character suspected; and he was difpofed to judge of it with yet lefs charity, when she had offended him by marrying his fon, whom he confidered as difgraced and impoverished, and whofe misfortune, as it was irretrievable, he refolved not to alleviate, but increafe;-a refolution, by which fathers, who have foolish and disobedient fons, ufually difplay their own kindness and wifdom. As foon as he had read Mercator's letter, he curfed him for a fool, who had been gulled by the artifices of a ftrumpet, to fcreen her from publick infamy by fathering her children, and fecure her from prifon by appropriating her debts. In an answer to his letter, which he wrote only to gratify his own refentment, he told him, that "if he had taken "Flavilla into keeping, he would have overlooked "it; and if her extravagance had diftreffed him, he "would have fatisfied his creditors; but that his

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marriage was not to be forgiven; that he should "never have another fhilling of his money; and he "was determined to fee him no more." Mercator, who was more provoked by this outrage than grieved at his lofs, difdained reply; and believing that

he

he had now moft reafon to be offended, could not be perfuaded to folicit a reconciliation.

He hired a genteel apartment for his wife of an upholsterer, who, with a view to let lodgings, had taken and furnished a large house near Leicesterfields; and in about two months left her to make another voyage.

He had received vifits of congratulation from her ! numerous acquaintance, and had returned them as

pledge of his defire that they should be repeated. But the remembrance of the gay multitude, which, while he was at home, had flattered his vanity, as foon as he was abfent alarmed his fufpicion: he had, indeed, no particular cause of jealoufy; but his anxiety arose merely from a sense of the temptation to which she was expofed, and the impoffibility of his fuperintending her conduct.

In the mean time, Flavilla continued to flutter round the fame giddy circle, in which she had shone fo long; the number of her vifitants was rather increafed than diminished; the gentlemen attended with yet greater affiduity, and fhe continued to encourage their civilities by the fame indiscreet familiarity: fhe was one night at the masquerade, and another at an opera: sometimes at a rout, and fometimes rambling with a party of pleasure in short excurfions from the town; fhe came home fome

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times at midnight, and fometimes in the morning; and fometimes fhe was abfent feveral nights together.

This conduct was the caufe of much fpeculation and uneafinéfs to the good man and woman of the house. At first they suspected that Flavilla was no better than a woman of pleafure; and that the perfon who had hired the lodgings for her as his wife, and had disappeared upon pretence of a voyage to fea, had been employed to impofe upon them, by concealing her character, in order to obtain fuch accommodation for her as fhe could not fo eafily have procured if it had been known; but as these fufpicions made them watchful and inquifitive, they foon discovered, that many ladies by whom she was vifited were of good character and fashion. Her conduct, however, fuppofing her to be a wife, was ftill inexcufable, and still endangered their credit and fubfiftence; hints were often dropped by the neighbours to the disadvantage of her character; and an elderly maiden lady, who lodged in the fecond floor, had given warning; the family was difturbed at all hours in the night, and the door was crouded all day with meffages and vifitants to Flavilla.

One day, therefore, the good woman took an opportunity to remonftrate, though in the most

distant

distant and respectful terms, and with the utmost diffidence and caution. She told Flavilla, " that "she was a fine young lady, that her husband was "abroad, that he kept a great deal of company, "and that the world was cenforious; fhe wished "that lefs occafion for fcandal was given; and

hoped to be excused the liberty fhe had taken, as " she might be ruined by those slanders which could "have no influence upon the great, and which, "therefore, they were not folicitous to avoid."This addrefs, however ambiguous, and however gentle, was eafily understood, and fiercely refented. Flavilla, proud of her virtue, and impatient of controul, would have despised the counsel of a philofopher, if it had implied an impeachment of her conduct; before a perfon fo much her inferior, therefore, fhe was under no restraint; she answered, with a mixture of contempt and indignation, that 'those only who did not know her would dare to 'take any liberty with her character; and warned 'her to propagate no fcandalous report at her peril.' Flavilla immediately rose from her seat, and the woman departed without reply, though she was fcarce lefs offended than her lodger; and from that moment she determined, when Mercator returned, to give warning.

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