Unaccount-
able malice of the human heart! and which is not confin'd
to the class of life they were of.
But as the time approached for me to come to some
resolution how to dispose of myself, and I was considering
round where to shift my quarters to, Mrs. Cole, a middle-
aged discreet sort of woman, who had been brought into my
acquaintance by one ot the Misses that visited me, upon
learning my situation, came to offer her cordial advice and
service to me; and as I had always taken to her more than
to any of my female acquaintances, I listened the easier to
her proposals. And, as it happened, I could not have put
myself into worse, or into better hands in all London: into
worse, because keeping a house of conveniency, there were
no lengths in lewdness she would not advise me to go, in
compliance with her customers; no schemes of pleasure, or
even unbounded debauchery, she did not take even a delight
in promoting: into a better, because nobody having had more
experience of the wicked part of the town than she had, was
fitter to advise and guard one against the worst dangers of
our profession; and what was rare to be met with in those
of her's, she contented herself with a moderate living pro-
fit upon her industry and good offices, and had nothing of
their greedy rapacious turn. She was really too a gentle-
woman born and bred, but through a train of accidents
reduc'd to this course, which she pursued, partly through
necessity, partly through choice, as never woman delighted
more in encouraging a brisk circulation of trade for the
sake of the trade itself, or better understood all the my-
steries and refinements of it, than she did; so that she
was consummately at the top of her profession, and dealt
only with customers of distinction: to answer the demands
of whom she kept a competent number of her daughters in
constant recruit (so she call'd those whom by her means,
and through her tuition and instructions, succeeded very
well in the world).
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