might not be seen to lock the partition door, and to take away the key,
before her mistress and Miss Temple came in.

These two sat down on a couch placed along the partition, and Miss Sarah,
notwithstanding her alarms, had distinctly heard, and perfectly retained
the whole conversation. As the little girl was at all this trouble to
make herself clean, only on Lord Rochester's account, as soon as ever she
could make her escape she regained her garret; where Rochester, having
repaired thither at the appointed hour, was fully informed of all that
had passed in the bathing room. He was astonished at the audacious
temerity of Hobart, in daring to put such a trick upon him; but, though
he rightly judged that love and jealousy were the real motives, he would
not excuse her. Little Sarah desired to know whether he had a real
affection for Miss Temple, as Miss Hobart said she supposed that was the
case. "Can you doubt it," replied he, "since that oracle of sincerity
has affirmed it? But then you know that I am not now capable of
profiting by my perfidy, were I even to gain Miss Temple's compliance,
since my debauches and the street-walkers have brought me to order."

This answer made Miss Sarah very easy, for she concluded that the first
article was not true, since she knew from experience that the latter was
false. Lord Rochester was resolved that very evening to attend the
duchess's court, to see what reception he would meet with after the fine
portrait Miss Hobart had been so kind as to draw of him. Miss Temple
did not fail to be there likewise, with the intention of looking on him
with the most contemptuous disdain possible, though she had taken care to
dress herself as well as she could. As she supposed that the lampoon
Miss Hobart had sung to her was in everybody's possession, she was under
great embarrassment lest all those whom she met should think her such a
monster as Lord Rochester had described her. In the mean time, Miss