Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 2).pdf/221

newly hired; as we were carelessly walking among the trees, we were alarm'd with the noise of a violent coughing, turning our heads towards which, we distinguish'd a plain well-dress'd elderly gentleman, who, attack'd with a sudden fit, was so much overcome as to be forc'd to give way to it, and sit down at the foot of a tree, where he seem'd suffocating with the severity of it, being perfectly black in the face: not less mov'd than frighten'd with which I flew on the instant to his relief, and using the rote of practice I had observ'd on the like occasion, I loosen'd his cravat, and clapp'd him on the back; but whether to any purpose, or whether the cough had had its course, I know not; but the fit went immediately off; and now recover'd to his speech, and legs, he returned me thanks, with as much emphasis as if I had sav'd his life: this naturally engaging a conversation, he acquainted me where he lived, which was, at a considerable distance from where I met with him, and where he had stray'd in-