I had now liv'd with Mr. Norbert near a quarter of a
year, in which space I circulated my time very pleasantly
between my amusements at Mrs. Cole's, and a proper attendance
on that gentleman, who paid me profusely for the unlimited
complaisance with which I passively humoured every caprice of
pleasure, and which had won upon him so greatly, that find-
ing, as he said, all that variety in me alone which he had
sought for in a number of women, I had made him lose his
taste for inconstancy, and new faces. But what was yet at
least agreeable, as well as more flattering, the love I had
inspir'd him with bred a deference to me that was of great
service to his health: for having by degrees, and with most
pathetic representations, brought him to some husbandry of
it, and to insure the duration of his pleasures by moderat-
ing their use, and correcting those excesses in them he was
so addicted to, and which had shatter'd his constitution and
destroyed his powers of life in the very point for which he
seemed chiefly desirous, to live, he was grown more delicate,
more temperate, and in course more healthy; his gratitude
for which was taking a turn very favourable for my fortune,
when once more the caprice of it dash'd the cup from my lips.
His sister, Lady L . . ., for whom he had a great affec-
tion, desiring him to accompany her down to Bath for her
health, he could not refuse her such a favour; and accord-
ingly, though he counted on staying away from me no more than
a week at farthest, he took his leave of me with an ominous
heaviness of heart, and left me a sum far above the state of
his fortune, and very inconsistent with the intended short-
ness of his journey; but it ended in the longest that can be,
and is never but once taken: for, arriv'd at Bath, he was not
there two days before he fell into a debauch of drinking with
some gentlemen, that threw him into a high fever and carry'd
him off in four days time, never once out of a delirium.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236