of resignation, to bear this.  Can a husband, who disregards you both night and day, really suppose, because his wife eats and drinks heartily, as, God be thanked, your royal highness does, that she wants nothing else than to sleep well too?  Faith, such conduct is too bad:  I therefore once more repeat that there is not a princess in the universe who would refuse the homage of a man like Sidney, when a husband pays his addresses elsewhere.”

These reasons were certainly not morally good; but had they been still worse the duchess would have yielded to them, so much did her heart act in concert with Miss Hobart, to overthrow her discretion and prudence.

This intrigue began at the very time that Miss Hobart advised Miss Temple not to give any encouragement to the addresses of the handsome Sidney.  As for him, no sooner was he informed by the confidant Hobart that the goddess accepted his adoration than he immediately began to be particularly reserved and circumspect in his behaviour, in order to divert the attention of the public; but the public is not so easily deceived as some people imagine.

As there were too many spies, too many inquisitive people and critics, in a numerous court, residing in the midst of a populous city, the duchess to avoid exposing the inclinations of her heart to the scrutiny of so many inquisitors, engaged the Duke of York to undertake the journey before mentioned, whilst the queen and her court were at Tunbridge.

This conduct was prudent; and, if agreeable to her, was far from displeasing to any of her court, except Miss Jennings:  Jermyn was not of the party; and, in her opinion, every party was insipid in which he was not one of the company.  He had engaged himself in an enterprise above his strength, in laying a wager which the Chevalier de Grammont had laid before, and lost.  He betted five hundred guineas that he would ride twenty miles in one hour upon the same horse, in the high road.  The day he had fixed upon for this race was the very same in which Miss Jennings went to the fortune-teller’s.

Jermyn was more fortunate than her in this undertaking he came off victorious; but as his courage had far exceeded the strength of his constitution in this exertion to win the wager, he got a violent fever into the bargain, which brought him very low.  Miss Jennings inquired after his health; but that was all she dared to do.  In modern romances, a princess need only pay a visit to some hero, abandoned by his physicians, a perfect cure would be wrought in three days; but since Miss Jennings had not been the cause of Jermyn’s fever, she was not certain of relieving him from it, although she had been sure that a charitable visit would not have been censured in a malicious court.  Without therefore paying any attention to the uneasiness she might feel upon the occasion, the court set out without him:  she had, however, the gratification to testify her ill-humour throughout the whole journey, by appearing displeased with everything which seemed to afford satisfaction to all the rest of the company.