The Adventures of Roderick Random

Progress of a Common Woman of the Town

Miss Williams explains to the narrator how, after being detected and abandoned by the narrator, she was forced to move to lodgings several floors higher. Her companion left her, disappointed in her expectations, leaving her with no resource but to venture forth at night seeking a precarious subsistence. She often wandered between Ludgate Hill and Charing-Cross entire winter nights, exposed to harsh weather and hunger, without meeting a single dupe. She would return to her garret in a deplorable condition, going to bed and attempting to bury her hunger and sorrows in sleep. When she encountered drunk men, she frequently suffered brutal treatment while being obliged to affect gaiety and good humor, though her soul was stung with resentment and her heart loaded with grief. During these nocturnal adventures, she contracted a disease that rendered her the object of her own abhorrence and drove her to the retreat where the narrator’s benevolence rescued her from death. Miss Williams allows that despite her misfortunes, she has not been as unlucky as many other prostitutes, having often seen former favorites of the town reduced to rags and filth in dark alleys, though she fears the same fate awaits her.

Resolves to Quit That Way of Life

The narrator reflects on Miss Williams’ story with astonishment at the variety of miseries she has endured in just two years, finding her situation a thousand times more wretched than his own. While the narrator has endured hardships throughout his life, he has learned to bear them as they have become habitual, and he retains the dignity to retrieve his character. Miss Williams, by contrast, had known the sweets of prosperity and been raised in comfort by indulgent parents, entertaining expectations of uninterrupted happiness, making her reverse of fortune all the more tormenting and intolerable. The narrator pronounces the profession of a courtesan the most deplorable and Miss Williams the most unhappy of courtesans. Her condition fills the narrator with sympathy and compassion; he reveres her qualifications and regards her as unfortunate rather than criminal. He attends her with such care that in less than two months, both their healths are perfectly re-established. They confer frequently about their mutual affairs and interchange advice, forming a thousand different projects that prove impracticable. Unable to find service without recommendations, they consider an expedient: Miss Williams will procure the garb of a country wench, go to some distant village, and arrive in a waggon as a fresh girl seeking service, thereby obtaining provision more suitable to her inclination than her present way of life.