One of the waiters coming in, added yet more to my
uncertainty by asking me, in a short way, if I called for
anything? to which I replied innocently: "No." But I
wished him to tell me where I might get a lodging for that
night. He said he would go and speak to his mistress, who
accordingly came, and told me drily, without entering in
the least into the distress she saw me in, that I might have
a bed for a shilling, and that, as she supposed I had some
friends in town (here I fetched a deep sigh in vain!) I
might provide for myself in the morning.
'Tis incredible what trifling consolations the human
mind will seize in its greatest afflictions. The assurance
of nothing more than a bed to lie on that night, calmed my
agonies; and being asham'd to acquaint the mistress of the
inn that I had no friends to apply to in town, I proposed
to myself to proceed, the very next morning, to an intelli-
gence office, to which I was furnish'd with written direc-
tions on the back of a ballad Esther had given me. There I
counted on getting information of any place that such a
country girl as I might be fit for, and where I could get
into any sort of being, before my little stock should be
consumed; and as to a character, Esther had often repeated
to me that I might depend on her managing me one; nor, how-
ever affected I was at her leaving me thus, did I entirely
cease to rely on her, as I began to think, good-naturedly,
that her procedure was all in course, and that it was only
my ignorance of life that had made me take it in the light
I at first did.
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