Memoirs of Fanny Hill — John Cleland

Upon this she acquainted me she was actually come to the office herself to look out for a servant that she believed I might do with a little of her instruction that she could take my very looks for a sufficient character that London was a very wicked vile place that she hoped I would be tractable and keep out of bad company in short she said all to me that an old experienced practitioner in town could think of and which was much more than was necessary to take in an artless inexperienced country maid who was even afraid of becoming a wanderer about the streets and therefore gladly jumped at the first offer of a shelter especially from so grave and matron like a lady for such my flattering fancy assured me this new mistress of mine was I being actually hired under the nose of the good woman that kept the office whose shrewed smiles and shrugs I could not help observing and innocently interpreted them as marks of being pleased at my getting into place so soon but as I afterwards came to know these Beldams understood one another very well and this was a market where Mrs Brown my mistress frequently attended on the watch for any fresh goods that might offer there for the use of her customers and her own profit