LETTER XV.

_INHABITANTS OF THE ALMS-HOUSE._

CLELIA.

She early found herself mistress of herself. All she did was right: all she said was admired. Early, very early, did she dismiss blushes from her cheek: she could not blush, because she could not doubt; and silence, whatever was the subject, was as much a stranger to her as diffidence.

_Richardson._

Quo fugit Venus? heu! Quove color? decens Quo motus? Quid habes illius, illius, Quæ spirabat amores, Quæ me surpuerat mihi?

_Horatius_, lib. iv, od. 13 [vv. 17-20].

Her lively and pleasant Manners--Her Reading and Decision--Her Intercourse with different Classes of Society--Her Kind of Character--The favoured Lover--Her Management of him: his of her--After one Period, Clelia with an Attorney: her Manner and Situation there--Another such Period, when her Fortune still declines--Mistress of an Inn--A Widow--Another such Interval: she becomes poor and infirm, but still vain and frivolous--The fallen Vanity--Admitted into the House; meets Blaney.