What an unsuitable Couple! infolent Woman! poor Sir Harry! yet why do I pity him!-He married her merely for her money, and knew she had nothing but that to recommend her, ! 2 1 1 By Titles dazzled, and by Wealth misled, NUMB. IV. Saturday, April 3, 1756. 4 The Maid who modestly conceals 4 MOORE. THE, following Letter, which came to my ১ hands yesterday, has puzzled me not a littles, and I don't know whether I ought to publish it. I will be so ingenuous as to own that I am very ignorant of the customs among those ingenious Gentlemen to which it alludes, and am therefore at a loss to find out my Correspondent's meaning: but as she is the first I have had since I commenced Author, my vanity will not : " for my head.-And do you hear, Sir Harry-I " have engagements for every night this week, *" which I would not put off for the universe, and "therefore can't possibly think of seeing those * horrid Cousins of yours if they should " come." Sir Harry and I then left her Ladyship to her own cogitations. Just at the door of her apartment, a servant told him that a gentleman waited for him in the parlour. He ran down stairs as nimbly as he could, while I lagged behind, in order to over-hear the important subject of the dialogue between. lady Squander and her woman. But I got nothing by my curiosity, for the old proverb was verified to a cittle. - "Here, Fidget, said she, bring the Rouge this instant; that abominable beast "BABBLE has undone me. What an indelicate " monster! He has made fuch a filthy smear just " on the round of my cheek, that I don't believe you can repair it in an hour.-Fogh-that " such an old fellow as he should think of 66 kiffing?- but he is so like all Sir Harry's " people. I was so much chagrined by these uncourteous expreffions, which were utter'd with a great deal of vehemence, that I retired to my lodgings without taking leave of my friend, whom I pity as much as I despise his lady. What handsome by all our neighbours, and we lives " in St Martin's Lane: and Ma lets all the gen"tlemen come and fee us that will, because she " says, may be some of them may take a fancy " to us: now there comes among the reft, but " he comes a great deal oftner than they, one Mr. Contour, who Ma thinks likes me: now "to be sure he is a very fine man, and to be " sure tells me that I am a delicate limb'd girl,. " with a great many pretty things that I can't " remember, and says he wishes he had my " picture: now you know there is no hurt in " that is there Mr. BABBLE? and Ma fays " she verily believes he has half a mind to marry " me, but Pa fays, 'tis no such thing, because he overheard him one day ask me to come to his " lodgings and stand without any cloaths for " him to draw me: now to be sure if he really " don't intend to marry me, why I had better " not go, though 'tis a pity that there should be " any harm in it, because I swear I don't be"lieve Mr. Contour means any harm, for he is " one of the best natured men you ever saw in " the whole course of your life, and to be sure " is quite a fine gentleman: so Pa has a mind " to forbid him the house, but Ma knows better " things, and she says if he drives him away " from " from the house he will never marry me; and " so they are at daggers draw about it: but Pa "swears I shan't go to his lodgings except he " will marry me first, and then Pa says, he " may paint me from morning to night: now "dear, sweet Mr. BABBLE, tell me what I had " best do, for I have no foul to advise with but " Ma, and she changes her mind as often as a " weathercock, so that I can't tell what to make " of her, no more than I do of Mr. Contour, "who I should be vastly forry to affront, you "know; so pray, Mr. BABBLE, say fome"thing to me about it, for Pa says you are a " very good fort of a man, and if it is true, I " am fure you will answer the scrawl of, "Your humble servant to command, "ROSE PLUMP." P. S. " I had like to forget to tell you, " that there's a place in our lane, where women "Stands before a dozen men at once, but I " would not go there for all the world." In answer to Miss Plump's letter, I can only fay, that if the has given me a true account of hor C2 : her cafe, I would not have her on any confideration think of going to Mr. Contour's lodgings, (because I dare venture to assure her that he is not the harmless man she takes him to be) but follow her Pa's advice, keep out of his company, and perfuade her Ma to let him be forbidden the house-she need not be afraid of affronting him, for I am throughly fatisfied he has not the least intention to make her his wife. - But there is a mystery in my correspondent's postscript, which I have not penetration enough to unravel. I own I should be extremely forry to fee the stripping-fashion revived with new spirit, after it has been so successfully rallied by my brotheressay-writers, Meffieurs TOWN and FITZADAM-'Tis true, I am an old man, and must not be peeping, but I have not of late seen higher than a lady's garter, or lower than the pit of her stomach, in any public place; how many other charms may be exhibited in a private room before only a dozen men at a time, I will not indeed prefume to say: as I never have been present at any fuch rout, or to use a more expressive word, riot; -for I was always reckon'd even by my enemies, a modest man; but I intend to afk Jack Sulphur, if he ever saw whole groupes of females in their paradifaical state, and if he tells |