Page:Original stories from real life 1796.pdf/165

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impertinent queſtion, will you tell me from what cauſe your viſible diſtreſs ariſes? perhaps I may have it in my power to relieve you.—The woman burſt into tears.—Indeed, Madam, you have already relieved me; for the money you have laid out will enable me to procure ſome food for my poor little grandchildren, and to ſend a meal to their poor father, who is now confined for debt, though a more honeſt man never breathed. Ah! Madam, I little thought I ſhould come to this—Yeſterday his wife died, poor ſoul! I really believe things going ſo croſs broke her heart. He has been in jail theſe five months; I could not manage the ſhop, or buy what was proper to keep up the credit of it, ſo buſineſs has been continually falling off; yet, if his debts were paid, he would now be here, and we ſhould have money in our pockets. And what renders it more provoking, the people who owe us moſt are very rich. It is true, they live in ſuch a very high ſtyle, and keep ſuch a number of horſes and ſervants, that they are often in want of money;

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