Charles remov'd me then to a private ready furnish'd
lodging in D . . . street, St. James's, where he paid half
a guinea a week for two rooms and a closet on the second
floor, which he had been some time looking out for, and was
more convenient for the frequency of his visits than where
he had at first plac'd me, in a house which I cannot say but
I left with regret, as it was infinitely endear'd to me by
the first possession of my Charles, and the circumstance of
losing, there, that jewel which can never be twice lost.
The landlord, however, had no reason to complain of any
thing, but of a procedure in Charles too liberal not to make
him regret the loss of us.
Arrived at our new lodgings, I remember I thought them
extremely fine, though ordinary enough, even at that price;
but, had it been a dungeon that Charles had brought me to,
his presence would have made it a little Versailles.
The landlady, Mrs. Jones, waited on us to our apart-
ment, and with great volubility of tongue explain'd to us
all its conveniences--that her own maid should wait on us
. . . that the best of quality had lodg'd at her house . . .
that her first floor was let to a foreign secretary of an
embassy, and his lady . . . that I looked like a very good-
natur'd lady. . . . At the word lady, I blush'd out of
flatter'd vanity: this was too strong for a girl of my con-
dition; for though Charles had had the precaution of dressing
me in a less tawdry flaunting style than were the cloaths I
escap'd to him in, and of passing me for his wife, that he
had secretly married, and kept private (the old story) on
account of his friends, I dare swear this appear'd extremely
apocryphal to a woman who knew the town so well as she did;
but that was the least of her concern.
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