Now, where would be the harm, faid I to myself, if I was to beg of this distresfed lady to accept of half of my chaise? and what mighty mischief could enfue? Every dirty passion, and bad propensity in my nature, took the alarm, as I ftated the propofition-It will oblige you to have a third horfe, faid AVARICE, which will put twenty livres out of your pocketYou know not who fhe is, faid CAUTION, or what scrapes the affair may draw you into, whisper'd COWARDICE-. Depend upon it, Yorick! said DISCRETION, 'twill be said you went off with a mistress, and came by assignation to Calais for that purposes -You can never after, cried HYPOCRISY aloud, fhew your face in the world-or rife, quoth MEANNESS, in the church-or be any thing in it, faid PRIDE, but a loufy prebendary. But 'tis a civil thing, said I—and as I generally act from the firft impulse, and therefore feldom liften to these cabals, 'which ferve no purpose, that I know of, but to encompass the heart with adamant -I turn'd inftantly about to the lady -But she had glided off unperceived, as the cause was pleading, and had made ten or a dozen paces down the street, by the time I had made the determination; so I set off after her with a long ftride, to make her the propofal with the beft address I was mafter of; but observing she walk'd with her cheek half refting upon the palm of her hand-with the flow, fhort-meafur'd ftep of thoughtfulness, and with her eyes, as she went ftep by step, fix'd upon the ground, it ftruck me, she was trying the fame cause herself. help her! faid I, she has some motherin-law, or tartufifh aunt, or nonfenfical old woman, to consult upon the occafion. as well as myself: so not caring to interrupt the process, and deeming it more gallant to take her at discretion than by furprise, I faced about, and took a short turn or two before the door of the Remife, whilft she walk'd mufing on one fide. - God F IN THE STREET. CALAIS. HAVING, on firft fight of the lady, fettled the affair in my fancy, "that she "was of the better order of beings"-and then laid it down as a fecond axiom, as indifputable as the firft, "that she was a "widow, and wore a character of diftrefs" -I went no farther; I got ground enough for the fituation which pleased me-and bad fhe remained close befide my elbow till midnight, I should have held true to my fyftem, and confidered her only under that general idea. She had scarce got twenty paces difiant from me, ere something within me called out for a more particular inquiry — it brought on the idea of a farther feparation-I might poffibly never see her more the heart is for saving what it can; and I wanted the traces thro' which my wishes might find their way to her, in cafe I should never rejoin her myself: in a word, I wish'd to know her name her family's- - her condition; and as I knew the place to which she was going, I wanted to know from whence she came : but there was no coming at all this intelligence; a hundred little delicacies ftood in the way. I formed a fcore different plans There was no fuch thing as man's asking her directly—the thing was impoffible. a A little French debonnaire captain, who came dancing down the ftreet, fhewed me it was the easiest thing in the world; for, popping in betwixt us, juft as the lady was returning back to the door of the Remife, he introduced himself to my acquaintance, and, before he had well got announced, begg'd I would do him the honour to prefent him to the lady I had not been prefented myself fo turning about to her, he did it juft as well by asking her, if she had come from Paris? No: fhe was going that route, faid. Vous n'êtes pas de Londres? She was not, she replied. Then Madam must have come through FlandersApparemment vous étes Flammande ? said the French captain- The lady answered, The she was. Peut-être de Lifle? added he— She faid, fhe was not of Lifle. - Nor Arras ?- -nor Cambray ?-nor Ghent ?— Nor Bruffels? She answered, fhe was of Bruffels. He had had the honour, he said, to be at the bombardment of it laft war- - that it was finely fituated, pour cela — and full of noblesse when the Imperialists were driven out by the French-(the lady made a flight courtesy) — so giving her an account of the affair, and of the fhare he had had in it—he begg'd the honour-to know her name - fo made his bow. - -Et Madame a fon Mari? said he, looking back when he had made two fteps and, without ftaying for an anfwer danced down the street. Had I ferved feven years apprenticeship to good-breeding, I could not have done as much. THE REMISE. CALAIS. As the little French captain left us, Monfieur Dessein came up with the key |