After having
made the most warm acknowledgments for this unforeseen honour, he
assured her ladyship that the subject of her reproach was not his
fault, but rather his very great misfortune; and that, if it had
been in his power to forget her so easily as she seemed to imagine,
he should never have given her cause to tax him with want of duty
and respect.
Still dubious of his situation, she began to converse with him
on different subjects; and he acquitted himself so well in every
particular, that she no longer doubted his having been misrepresented
by the malice of his enemies, and candidly told him the cause
and intent of her coming. He was not deficient in expressions of
gratitude for this instance of her generosity and friendship, which
even drew tears from his eyes. As to the imputation of madness,
he explained it so much to her ladyship's satisfaction, that she
evidently perceived he had been barbarously dealt with, and that the
charge was no other than a most villainous aspersion. Notwithstanding
all his endeavours to conceal the true state of his finances, it
was impossible for him to give this detail, without disclosing some
of the difficulties under which he laboured; and, her ladyship's
sagacity divining the rest, she not only made him a tender of
assistance, but, presenting a bank-note for a considerable sum,
insisted upon his acceptance of it as a trifling mark of her esteem,
and a specimen of what she was inclined to do in his behalf.
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