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gether with a very briſk gale, they brought the veſſel into Dublin harbour.
Here our adventurer took a lodging in a back-ſtreet near St. Stephen’s Green, at which place ſhe intended to preach the next day; but had got a cold in the voyage, which occaſioned ſuch a hoarſeneſs that made it impoſſible to put that deſign in practice.
There lodged in the ſame houſe with her, a briſk widow of near 40 Years of age, who had buried two huſbands, and ſeemed by her behaviour to be far from having determined againſt a third expedition to the land of matrimony.
To this widow our adventurer began preſently to make addreſſes, and as he at preſent wanted tongue to expreſs the ardency of his flame, he was obliged to make uſe of actions of endearment, ſuch as ſqueezing, kiſſing, toying, &c.
Theſe were received in ſuch a manner by the fair widow, that her lover thought he had ſufficient encouragement to proceed to a formal declaration of his paſſion. And this ſhe choſe to do by letter, as her voice ſtill continued too hoarſe for uttering the ſoft accents of love.
A letter therefore was penned accordingly in the uſual ſtile, which, to prevent any miſcarriages, Mrs. Hamilton thought proper to deliver with her own hands; and immediately retired to give the adored lady an opportunity of digeſting the contents alone, little doubting of an anſwer agreeable to her wiſhes, or at leaſt ſuch a one as the coyneſs of the ſex generally dictates in the beginning of an amour, and which lovers, by long experience, know pretty well how to interpret.
But what was the gallant’s ſurprize, when in return to an amorous epiſtle, ſhe read the following ſarcaſms, which it was impoſſible for the moſt ſan-
