The same young woman came to my lodging the next day: tho’ it was a wretched hole, it pleased her by its cleanness. My poor little boy she admired extremely, but I could not help feeling distressed, at having reason to be ashamed of a child, of which so many great families would be vain; but his charms could not wipe off the infamy of his birth; an infamy, which, in justice, belongs only to the parents.

As soon as we were seated, she delivered me a letter from my sister, wherein she acquainted me, ‘That she could no longer find any comfort in plenty, since she might not impart it to me. That as all her stock in trade belonged to her husband, she could not, without being guilty of a criminal injustice, attempt to appropriate to herself any thing out of what she sold; and that as her expences had always, by choice, been very small, it was but little she should be able to assist me with at present, as her husband would be watchful; but that she hoped in a month or two he might have me less in his thoughts, and then she should find the means of supplying me more suitably to her own inclinations.’

This was mixed with expressions infinitely kind, and very valuable, as coming from the sincerest of hearts. She had, I found, never been used to ask him for any money; when she bought any thing, the bill was brought him, and he paid it, and would have done so with pleasure, if it had been a much greater sum. If she had any immediate call, she took it out of the produce of the shop, and, in settling the account, told him what it was for. There was such entire harmony between them, that this became her custom, as the easiest way; but now she regretted it extremely, and yet knew not how to break through it.