he leant 'pon my arm; in my haste of enquiring how he had fared, I
called him by his name. He knew me, but looked surprised at my
appearance; he was speaking to me, however, with kindness, when seeing
some gentlemen of his acquaintance gallopping up to him, he hastily
disengaged himself from me, and instantly beginning to recount to them
what had happened, he sedulously looked another way, and joining his
new companions, walked off without taking further notice of me. For a
moment I was almost tempted to trouble him to come back; but a little
recollection told me how ill he deserved my resentment, and bid me
transfer it for the future from the pitiful individual to the worthless
community.

"Here finished my deliberation; the disgust to the world which I had
already conceived, this little incident confirmed; I saw it was only
made for the great and the rich;--poor, therefore, and low, what had I
to do in it? I determined to quit it for ever, and to end every
disappointment, by crushing every hope.

"I wrote to Lord Vannelt to send my trunks to my mother; I wrote to my
mother that I was well, and would soon let her hear more: I then paid
off my lodgings, and 'shaking the dust from my feet,' bid a long adieu
to London; and, committing my route to chance, strole on into the
country, without knowing or caring which way.

"My first thought was simply to seek retirement, and to depend for my
future repose upon nothing but a total seclusion from society: but my
slow method of travelling gave me time for reflection, and reflection
soon showed me the error of this notion.

"Guilt, cried I, may, indeed, be avoided by solitude; but will misery?