Languages & literature > Key to the drama

C 184 )
pofe by the voice of piercing murmurs,
which feemed to force their way through
moft aifeding fighs: I liftened, and ad¬
hering to my ftation, foon obferved a young
lady, genteelly drefled, and of a very en¬
gaging form, place herfelf on a bench im¬
mediately under the wall contiguous to my
retirement; fhe had not fat long, before flie
was joined by another more elderly gentle¬
woman, for whom Ihe feemed to have
waited. The moment the gentlewoman
hp^eared, the fair mourner hafdly demanded
of her, What tidings? Is my friend at hand
or not? Is he alive? The gentlewoman
anfwered, Madam, be compofed, nothing
bad has, I believe, yet happened, with re¬
gard to the obje6t of your defires ; my in¬
quiries have not hitherto been complete,
but 1 have confidents at work, who, I hope,
will be able to procure us fome fatisfaftion :
but permit me. Madam, to afk you, how
it happens, that thus dejedled, you aban¬
don the protedion of your father’s houfe;
for withoyt alarming you with an ill-
grounded diffidence, I ffiould not chufe to
be employed in any bufinefs that might
taint my reputation ? This queftion drew
from the trembling Ifabella (fo was the latfy
named) a flood of tears ; and how foon file
could charge her tongue to utterance, flie'
fobbed out. How hard, how cruelly hard !