I was very well dressed, and had my gold watch as well as she; so I
left the footman, and I puts myself in a rank with this young lady,
having stayed till she had taken one double turn in the Mall, and was
going forward again; by and by I saluted her by her name, with the
title of Lady Betty. I asked her when she heard from her father; when
my lady her mother would be in town, and how she did.
I talked so familiarly to her of her whole family that she could not
suspect but that I knew them all intimately. I asked her why she would
come abroad without Mrs. Chime with her (that was the name of her
woman) to take of Mrs. Judith, that was her sister. Then I entered
into a long chat with her about her sister, what a fine little lady she
was, and asked her if she had learned French, and a thousand such
little things to entertain her, when on a sudden we saw the guards
come, and the crowd ran to see the king go by to the Parliament House.
The ladies ran all to the side of the Mall, and I helped my lady to
stand upon the edge of the boards on the side of the Mall, that she
might be high enough to see; and took the little one and lifted her
quite up; during which, I took care to convey the gold watch so clean
away from the Lady Betty, that she never felt it, nor missed it, till
all the crowd was gone, and she was gotten into the middle of the Mall
among the other ladies.
I took my leave of her in the very crowd, and said to her, as if in
haste, 'Dear Lady Betty, take care of your little sister.' And so the
crowd did as it were thrust me away from her, and that I was obliged
unwillingly to take my leave.
The hurry in such cases is immediately over, and the place clear as
soon as the king is gone by; but as there is always a great running and
clutter just as the king passes, so having dropped the two little
ladies, and done my business with them without any miscarriage, I kept
hurrying on among the crowd, as if I ran to see the king, and so I got
before the crowd and kept so till I came to the end of the Mall, when
the king going on towards the Horse Guards, I went forward to the
passage, which went then through against the lower end of the
Haymarket, and there I bestowed a coach upon myself, and made off, and
I confess I have not yet been so good as my word, viz. to go and visit
my Lady Betty.