Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 1).pdf/146

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Memoirs of a

satisfaction of believing it impossible for man to be more tender, more true, more faithful than he was.

Our landlady, Mrs. Jones, came frequently up to my apartment from whence I never stirr'd on any pretext without Charles: nor was it long before she worm'd out, without much art, the secret of our having cheated the church of a ceremony; and in course of the terms we liv'd together upon: a circumstance which far from displeas'd her, considering the designs she had upon me, and which, alas! she will have too soon room to carry into execution. But in the mean time her own experience of life, let her see that any attempt however indirect, or disguis'd, to divert or break, at least presently, so strong a cement of hearts as ours was, could only end in losing two lodgers, of whom she made very competent advantages, if either of us came to smoak her commission, for a commission she had from one of her customers, either to debauch or get me away from my keeper at any rate.

But