Brown's direction.
Accordingly they were let in upon me, and all that
frolic and thoughtless gaiety in which those giddy creatures
consume their leisure made me envy a condition of which I
only saw the fair side; insomuch, that the being one of them
became even my ambitionP a disposition which they all care-
fully cultivated; and I wanted now nothing but to restore my
health, that I might be able to undergo the ceremony of the
initiation.
Conversation, example, all, in short, contributed, in
that house, to corrupt my native purity, which had taken no
root in education; whilst not the inflammable principal of
pleasure, so easily fired at my age, made strange work
within me, and all the modesty I was brought up in the
habit, not the instruction of, began to melt away like dew
before the sun's heat; not to mention that I made a vice of
necessity, from the constant fears I had of being turn'd
out to starve.
I was soon pretty well recover'd, and at certain hours
allow'd to range all over the house, but cautiously kept
from seeing any company till the arrival of Lord B . . .,
from Bath, to whom Mrs. Brown, in respect to his experi-
enced generosity on such occasions, proposed to offer the
perusal ot that trinket of mine, which bears so great an
imaginary value; and his lordship being expected in town
in less than a fortnight, Mrs.
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