The Courtesan and the Clergyman

Miss G- says 'tis nothing like sharping but the scientifick demonstration of certain principles in mathematicks, requiring only, she adds modestly, an accurate memory and a capacity for calculation. She goes on to say that she is in correspondence with a Fellow of the Royal Society, that considers her recent achievements constitute sound proof of certain theories of his own...We have now correspond'd for some months, she says, with wistfully romantick expression... Dearest Abby, I say finally... you are engaging in epistolary mathematickal flirtation with a clergyman."Miss G- contrives to shock me"The Comfortable Courtesan: Volume 1 - Being MEMOIRS by Clorinda Cathcart (that has been a Lady of the Town these several years)And then, quite by chance, Abigail Gowing meets her clerical correspondent - Could anyone have foreseen what would happen then?