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C'est bien vrai, said he But in this case I should only exchange one disquietude for.another, and with loss figure to yourself, my dear Sir, that in giving you a chaise which would fall to pieces be= fore you had got half way to Paris figure to your= self how much I should suffer, in giving an ill im= pression of myself to a man of honour, and lying at the mercy, as I must do, d'un homme d'esprit.

The dose was made up exactly after my own prescription; so I could not help taking it and return= ing Mons. Dessein his bow, without more casuistry we walked together towards his remise, to take a view of his magazine of chaises.

IN THE STREET.

CALAIS.

Ir must needs be a hostile kind of a world, when the buyer (if it be but of a sorry post-chaise) cannot go forth with the seller thereof into the street to terminate the difference betwixt them, but he instantly falls into the same frame of mind, and views his conventionist with the same sort of eye, as if he was going along with him to Hyde-park corner to fight a duel. For my own part, being but a poor sword'sman, and no way a match for Mons. Dessein, I felt the rotation of all the movements within me, to which the situation is incident I looked at Mons. Dessein through and through eyed him as he walked along in profile then, en face thought he looked like a Jew then a Turk

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disliked his

cursed him by my gods wished him at the

And is all this to be lighted up in the heart for a beggarly account of three or four louis d'or,

which is the most I can be over-reached in? Base passion! said I, turning myself about, as a man na turally does upon a sudden reverse of sentiment = base, ungentle passion! thy hand is against every man, and every man's hand against thee Heaven forbid said she, raising her hand up to her fore head, for I had turned full in front upon the lady whom I had seen in conference with the monk she had followed us unperceived Heaven forbid, indeed! said I, offering her my own she had black pair of silk gloves open only at the thumb and two fore-fingers, so accepted it without reserve and I led her up to the door of the remise.

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Mons. Dessein had diabled the key above fifty times before he found out he had come with a wrong one in his hand we were as impatient as himself to have it opened; and so attentive to the obstacle, that I continued holding her hand almost without know= ing it; so that Mons. Dessein left us together with her hand in mine, and with our faces turned towards the door of the remise, and said he would be back in five minutes.

Now a colloquy of five minutes, in such a situa= tion, is worth one of as many ages, with your faces turned towards the street in the latter case, 'tis drawn from the objects and occurrences without when your eyes are fixed upon a dead blank you draw purely from yourselves. A silence of a single moment upon Mons. Dessein's leaving us, had been fatal to the situation she had infallibly turned ab out so I begun the conversation instantly.

But what were the temptations, (as I write not to apologize for the weaknesses of my heart in this tour, but to give an account of them) = shall be described with the same simplicity, with which I felt them.

THE REMISE DOOR.

CALAIS.

WHEN I told the reader that I did not care to get

out of the désobligeante, because I saw the monk in close conference with a lady just arrived at the inn I told him the truth; but I did not tell him the whole truth; for I was full as much restrained by the appearance and figure of the lady he was talk= ing to. Suspicion crossed my brain, and said, he was telling her what had passed; something jarred upon it within me I wished him at his convent.

When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains I was certain she was of a better order of beings how ever, I thought no more of her, but went on and wrote my preface.

The impression returned, upon my encounter with her in the street; a guarded frankness with which she gave me her hand, shewed, I thought, her good education and her good sense; and as I led her on, I felt a pleasurable ductility about her, which spread a calmness over all my spirits

Good God! how a man might lead such a creature as this round the world with him!

I had not yet seen her face = 'twas not material; for the drawing was instantly set about, and long before we had got to the door of the remise, Fan= cy had finished the whole head, and pleased herself as much with its fitting her goddess, as if she had dived into the TIBER for it but thou art a se= duced and a seducing slut; and albeit thou cheatest us seven times a day with thy pictures and images, yet with so many charms dost thou do it, and thou deck

est out thy pictures in the shapes of so many angels of light, 'tis a shame to break with thee.

When we had got to the door of the remise, she withdrew her hand from across her forehead, and let me see the original it was a face of about six and twenty of a clear transparent brown, simply set off without rouge or powder = it was not criti= cally handsome, but there was that in it, which, in the frame of mind I was in, attached me much more to it it was interesting; I fancied it wore the characters of a widowed look, and in that state of its declension, which had passed the two first paroxisms of sorrow, and was quietly beginning to reconcile itself to its loss but a thousand other distresses. might have traced the same lines; I wished to know what they had been and was ready to enquire, (had the same bon ton of conversation permitted, as in the days of Esdras) - What aileth thee? and why art thou disquieted? and why is thy understanding troubled?» = In a word, I felt benevolence for her; and resolved some way or other to throw in my mite of courtesy if not of service. Such were my temptations and in this disposi tion to give way to them, was I left alone with the lady, with her hand in mine, and with our faces both turned closer to the door of the remise than what was absolutely necessary.

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Tars certainly, fair lady! said I, raising her hand up a little lightly as I began, must be one of For tune's whimsical doings; to take two utter strangers by their hands of different sexes, and, perhaps,

from different corners of the globe, and, in one moment, place them together in such a cordial situation, as friendship herself could scarce have at ́chieved forthem, had she projected it for a month.

And your reflection upon it, shews how much, monsieur, she has embarrassed you by the adven

ture.

When the situation is what we would wish, nothing is so ill-timed as to hint at the circumstances which make it so; you thank Fortune, continued she you had reason the heart knew it, and was satisfied; and who, but an English philosopher, would have sent notice of it to the brain, to reverse the judgment Pol

In saying this, she disengaged her hand, with a look which I thought a sufficient commentary upon. the text.

It is a miserable picture which I am going to give of the weakness of my heart, by owning that it suf= fered a pain, which worthier occasions could not have inflicted. I was mortified with the loss of her band, and the manner in which I had lost it carried neither oil nor wine to the wound; I never felt the pain of a sheepish inferiority so miserably in my life.

The triumphs of a true feminine heart are short upon these discomfitures. In a very few seconds she laid her hand upon the cuff of my coat, in order to finish her reply; so some way or other, God knows how, I regained my situation.

She had nothing to add.

I forthwith began to model a different conversa tion for the lady, thinking from the spirit as well as moral of this, that I had been mistaken in her cha racter; but upon turning her face towards me, the spirit which had animated the reply was fled muscles relaxed, and I beheld the same unprotected

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