Various were the reports concerning Alinda, both while she was alive and after her decease; but all the world could say with any certainty, either of her affairs or conduct, might be compriz'd in the following articles:

That she was the only child of a very eminent and wealthy merchant in the city, who, on the death of his wife, left off business, and having purchased an estate of near a thousand pounds a year in the country, retired thither to pass the remainder of his days, taking Alinda with him, at that time about ten years of age.

That through some peculiarities in his temper she was educated in a very odd fashion, - secluded from all conversation with the neighbouring gentry, and scarce suffer'd to speak to any one out of their own family.

That after his death, which happen'd in her seventeenth year, she return'd, with the consent of her guardians, to London, - lived in a manner suitable to her fortune, and had many advantageous offers of marriage, all which she rejected without giving any reason for doing so.

That at one and twenty she fell into a wasting disorder, which was judged to proceed rather from some inward grief preying upon her spirits, than from any distemper of the body; - it baffled, however, all the skill of the physicians, and she expired after a tedious languishment of near three years, leaving the possession of her estate to a nephew of her father's, who was the next of kin.

All these things, I say, were public; - but as to the motive which made her avoid listening to any proposals for changing her condition, or the cause of that melancholy which brought on her death, every one spoke of them as they thought proper, and according as the dispositions of their own hearts inclined them to judge.