three Months he left me.  My Parents would not see, nor hear from me; and had it not been for a Servant, who had lived in our Family, I must certainly have perished for want of Bread.  However, it pleased Providence, in a very short time, to alter my miserable Condition.  A Gentleman saw me, liked me, and married me.  My Parents were reconciled; and I might be as happy in the Change of my Condition, as I was before miserable, but for some things, that you shall know, which are insupportable to me; and I am sure you have so much Honour and Compassion as to let those Persons know, in some of your Papers, how much they are in the wrong.  I have been married near five Years, and do not know that in all that time I ever went abroad without my Husband’s Leave and Approbation.  I am obliged, through the Importunities of several of my Relations, to go abroad oftner than suits my Temper.  Then it is, I labour under insupportable Agonies.  That Man, or rather Monster, haunts every Place I go to.  Base Villain!  By reason I will not admit his nauseous wicked Visits and Appointments, he strives all the ways he can to ruin me.  He left me destitute of Friend or Money, nor ever thought me worth enquiring after, till he unfortunately happened to see me in a Front Box, sparkling with Jewels.  Then his Passion returned.  Then the Hypocrite pretended to be a Penitent.  Then he practised all those Arts that helped before to undo me.  I am not to be deceived a second time by him.  I hate and abhor his odious Passion; and, as he plainly perceives it, either out of Spight or Diversion, he makes it his Business to expose me.  I never fail seeing him in all publick Company, where he is always most industriously spightful.  He hath, in short, told all his Acquaintance of our unhappy Affair, they tell theirs; so that it is no Secret among his Companions, which are numerous.  They, to whom he tells it, think they have a Title to be very familiar.  If they bow to me, and I out of good Manners return it, then I am pester’d with Freedoms that are no ways agreeable to my self or Company.  If I turn my Eyes from them, or seem displeased, they sower upon it, and whisper the next Person; he his next; ’till I have at last the Eyes of the whole Company upon me.  Nay, they report abominable Falshoods, under that mistaken Notion, She that will grant Favours to one Man, will to a hundred.  I beg you will let those who are guilty, know, how ungenerous this way of Proceeding is.  I am sure he will know himself the Person aim’d at, and perhaps put a stop to the Insolence of others.  Cursed is the Fate of unhappy Women! that Men may boast and glory in those things that we must think of with Shame and Horror!  You have the Art of making such odious Customs appear detestable.  For my Sake, and I am sure, for the Sake of several others, who dare not own it, but, like me, lie under the same Misfortunes, make it as infamous for a Man to boast of Favours, or expose our Sex, as it is to take the Lie or a Box on the Ear, and not resent it.’ Your Constant Reader, and Admirer, LESBIA.

  P. S.  ’I am the more Impatient under this Misfortune, having receiv’d
  fresh Provocation, last Wednesday, in the Abbey.’