The Midnight Retreat
Having laid out the situation to her companion, the lady accepts that they must decamp quietly, as they are indebted both to their landlady and to several neighbourhood tradesmen. Their retreat is therefore carefully concerted: the companion packs all their clothes and moveables into small parcels, carries them out piecemeal under the pretext of fetching cordinals for the lady, and deposits them with an acquaintance who also provides a new lodging. The two women slip away in the middle of the night, while every other body in the house is asleep.
Entrapping the Narrator
Forced to aim at lower game, the lady spreads her nets among tradespeople but finds them all too phlegmatic or cautious for her arts. At last she becomes acquainted with the narrator, on whom she practises all her dexterity—not because she believes he has any fortune or expectation of her, but so that she may transfer the burden of her existing and future debts from herself to another, and at the same time revenge herself on his sex by rendering miserable a man who bears such a resemblance to the wretch who originally ruined her. Heaven, however, preserves him from her snares: the discovery is made owing to the negligence of her maid, who leaves the chamber-door unlocked when she goes to buy sugar for breakfast.
Discovery and Rejection
When the lady finds herself detected and forsaken by the narrator, she is obliged to move her lodging and dwell two pair of stairs higher than before. Her companion, disappointed in her expectations of a share in the profits, leaves her, leaving her with no resource but to venture forth like owls in the dark to pick up a precarious and uncomfortable subsistence.
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