might be many finer than I was; it must be confessed that the habit was infinitely advantageous to me, and everybody looked at me with a kind of pleasure, which gave me great advantage too.
After I had danced with that noble person, I did not offer to dance by myself, as I had before; but they all called out, 'Roxana', again; and two of the gentlemen came into the drawing-room to entreat me to give them the Turkish dance, which I yielded to readily, so I came out and danced just as at first.
While I was dancing, I perceived five persons standing all together, and, among them, only one with his hat on. It was an immediate hint to me who it was, and had at first almost put me into some disorder; but I went on, received the applause of the house, as before, and retired into my own room. When I was there, the five gentlemen came across the room to my side, and, coming in, followed by a throng of great persons, the person with his hat on said, 'Madam Roxana, you perform to admiration.' I was prepared, and offered, to kneel to kiss his hand, but he declined it, and saluted me, and so, passing back again through the great room, went away.
I do not say here who this was, but I say I came afterwards to know something more plainly. I would have withdrawn, and disrobed, being somewhat too thin in that dress, unlaced and open-breasted, as if I had been in my shift; but it could not be, and I was obliged to dance after wards with six or eight gentlemen, most, if not all of them, of the first rank; and I was told afterwards that one of them was the Duke of M[onmou]th.
About two or three o'clock in the morning the company began to decrease; the number of women especially dropped away home, some and some at a time; and the gentlemen retired downstairs, where they unmasked and went to play.
Amy waited at the room where they played, sat up all night to attend them, and in the morning, when they broke up, they swept the box into her lap, when she counted out to me sixty-two guineas and a half; and the other servants got very well too. Amy came to me when they were all gone; 'Law, madam', says Amy, with a long, gaping cry, 'what shall I do with all this money?' And indeed the poor creature was half mad with joy.
I was now in my element. I was as much talked of as anybody could desire, and I did not doubt but something or other would come of it; but the report of my being so rich rather was a balk to my view than anything else; for the gentlemen that would perhaps have been troublesome enough otherwise, seemed to be kept off, for Roxana was too high for them.
There is a scene which came in here which I must cover from human eyes or ears. For three years and about a month Roxana lived retired, having been obliged to make an excursion in a manner, and with a person which duty and private vows obliges her not to reveal, at least not yet.
At the end of this time I appeared again; but, I must add, that, as I had in this time of retreat made hay, etc., so I did not come abroad again with the same lustre, or shine with so much advantage as before. For, as some people had got at least a suspicion of where I had been, and who had had me all the while, it began to be public that Roxana was, in short, a mere Roxana, neither better nor worse, and not that woman of honour and virtue that was at first supposed.
