were only distant a very short day's journey from it, she had never been
able to satisfy her curiosity: it was not therefore without reason, that
she grew weary of the life she was forced to lead at Peckham. The
melancholy retired situation of the place was to her insupportable; and
as she had the folly, incident to many other women, of believing
sterility to be a kind of reproach, she was very much hurt to see that
she might fall under that suspicion; for she was persuaded, that although
heaven had denied her children, she nevertheless had all the necessary
requisites on her part, if it had been the will of the Lord. This had
occasioned her to make some reflections, and then to reason upon those
reflections; as for instance, that since her husband chose rather to
devote himself to his studies, than to the duties of matrimony, to turn
over musty old books, rather than attend to the attractions of beauty,
and to gratify his own pleasures, rather than those of his wife, it might
be permitted her to relieve some necessitous lover, in neighbourly
charity, provided she could do it conscientiously, and to direct her
inclinations in so just a, manner, that the evil spirit should have no
concern in it. Mr. Wetenhall, a zealous partisan for the doctrine of the
casuists, would not perhaps have approved of these decisions; but he was
not consulted.

The greatest misfortune was, that neither solitary Peckham nor its
sterile neighbourhood, presented any expedients, either for the execution
of the afore-mentioned design, or for the relief of poor Mrs. Wetenhall:
she was visibly pining away, when, through fear of dying either with
solitude or of want, she had recourse to Miss Hamilton's commiseration.

Their first acquaintance was formed at Paris, whither Mr. Wetenhall had
taken his wife half a year after they were married, on a journey thither
to buy books: Miss Hamilton, who from that very time greatly pitied her,