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In the circle of my acquaintance,
there was a young lady, of not the
mo&longs;t promi&longs;ing per&longs;on, and, of rather a
vinegar a&longs;pect, who was ju&longs;t approximating
towards thirty years of age.
Though, by avoiding married parties,
mingling with very young company, dressing
airily; &longs;hivering in lawn and sarcenet,
at meeting, in December; affecting
a girli&longs;h li&longs;p, blu&longs;h, and giggle, &longs;he was &longs;till
endeavouring to ward off that invidious
appellation of old maid. Upon good
grounds, I am led to believe, that the
charity of the tea table had added to her

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years; becau&longs;e, from a long acquaintance
with her, I could never induce her to remember
any event, however trivial, which
happened before Lexington battle. The
girls, of my age, re&longs;pected me, as a man of
&longs;pirit; but I was more fond of being esteemed,
as a man of learning. This
young lady loved literature, and lamented
to me her ignorance of the Greek. I gave
her a decided preference to her rivals.
She borrowed books of me, and read
them with a&longs;toni&longs;hing rapidity. From
my own little library, and from tho&longs;e of
my friends, I procured above &longs;ixty volumes
for her; among which were Locke
on Human Under&longs;tanding, Stackhou&longs;e's
Body of Divinity, and Gla&longs;s's works, not
on cookery, but the benignant works of
John Gla&longs;s, the father of Sandiman, and
the Sandimanians; in which collection I
did not however omit Pope's Homer, and
Dryden's Virgil: and, to my astonishment,
though I knew that her afternoons

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were devoted to the &longs;tructure of caps and
bonnets, &longs;he peru&longs;ed tho&longs;e &longs;ixty volumes
completely, and returned them to me, in
le&longs;s than a month. There was one thing
peculiarly plea&longs;ing to me, as a man of letters;
that &longs;he never made dog leaves, or
&longs;oiled the books; a &longs;lovenly practice, of
which even great &longs;cholars are &longs;ome times
guilty. I would, at times, endeavour to
draw her into a conver&longs;ation, upon the
author &longs;he had recently peru&longs;ed. She
would blu&longs;h, look down, and &longs;ay that it
did not become a young girl, like her, to
talk upon &longs;uch &longs;ubjects, with a gentleman
of my &longs;en&longs;e. The compliment it
contained ever rendered the apology
irre&longs;i&longs;table. One day, &longs;he a&longs;ked me to
lend her a dictionary. I immediately procured
for her the great Doctor John&longs;on's,
in two volumes folio. About three days
afterwards, &longs;he offered to return them.
Knowing that a dictionary was a work,
to which reference was often nece&longs;&longs;ary;

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and, thinking it might be of &longs;ome &longs;ervice
to evenalady of her learning, I pre&longs;&longs;ed her
to keep it longer. When &longs;he replied,
with the prettie&longs;t li&longs;p imaginable, that
they were indeed very pretty &longs;tory
books; but, &longs;ince I had lent them to her,
&longs;he had read them all through twice; and
then inquired, with the &longs;ame gentle li&longs;p,
if I could not lend her a book, called
Rolling Belly Lettres. I was in absolute
a&longs;toni&longs;hment. Virgil's traveller,
treading on the &longs;nake in the gra&longs;s, was
comparatively in perfect compo&longs;ure. I
took a folio under each arm, and &longs;kipped
out of the hou&longs;e, as lightly as if I had had
nothing heavier, than a late antifederal
election &longs;ermon to carry. This learned
young lady was amazingly affronted, at
my abrupt departure; but, when the
cau&longs;e of it was explained to her, &longs;ome
months after, &longs;he endeavoured to persuade
a journey man tailor, who courted
her niece, to challenge me to fight a

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duel, who actually penned a challenge,
upon one of his ma&longs;ter's pa&longs;teboard patterns;
and, I verily believe, would have
&longs;ent it, by his &longs;econd, if he had not been
informed, that my character was established,
as a man of honour.

p407-124

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