Page:Magdalen, or, The history of a reform'd prostitute.pdf/17

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had no money: we had no friends: we wept together, but we could find no possibility of deliverance from a pursuit of our former life, in order to obtain sustenance. I am sure, and can say it with the most solemn truth, any employment would have been blessed, in comparison of this. For let the humane only judge of a timorous young girl entering the streets with a guilty mind, and a shameful purpose; darkness and distress around her; and under the dire necessity of submitting to the brutality of lust with any wretch who is inclined to use her. I was shocked with horror. Exquisite and pressing hunger, I truly declare, alone compelled me. Sally and myself took a little apartment, and there breathed a miserable existence.

Some weeks after which, as I was crossing the Strand, a young man met me, and using my name, I looked at him attentively: but what was my surprize and my pleasure to find it my elder brother, who was grown much since I saw him, and was now near sixteen years old! I was ready to faint at the sight of him! For there had always been a particular love between us. I perceived the tears gush down the cheeks of the dear youth, and you may easily conceive I could not refrain mine. He beckoned me to follow, and when we came to a private avenue in the street, he took my hand, and, 'Oh! my dearest sister, said he, how happy am I, that at last I have found you! my uncle