Gold which I promised him, and afterwards, to his great Surprize, will present him another Purse of the same Value, with some short Speech; as,_ Sir, you see I am a Man of my Word:  I always give more than I promise.

When I have brought the Princess to my House, I shall take particular care to breed in her a due Respect for me, before I give the Reins to Love and Dalliance.  To this end I shall confine her to her own Apartment, make her a short Visit, and talk but little to her.  Her Women will represent to me, that she is inconsolable by reason of my Unkindness, and beg me with Tears to caress her, and let her sit down by me; but I shall still remain inexorable, and will turn my Back upon her all the first Night.  Her Mother will then come and bring her Daughter to me, as I am seated upon my Sofa.  The Daughter, with Tears in her Eyes, will fling herself at my Feet, and beg of me to receive her into my Favour:  Then will I, to imprint in her a thorough Veneration for my Person, draw up my Legs and spurn her from me with my Foot, in such a manner that she shall fall down several Paces from the Sofa.

Alnaschar was entirely swallowed up in this Chimerical Vision, and could not forbear acting with his Foot what he had in his Thoughts:  So that unluckily striking his Basket of brittle Ware, which was the Foundation of all his Grandeur, he kicked his Glasses to a great distance from him into the Street, and broke them into ten thousand Pieces.

O.

[Footnote 1:  [that lie]

[Footnote 2:  Arabian Nights, translated by Antony Galland, who died 1715.]

* * * * *

No. 536.  Friday, November 14, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘O verae Phrygiae neque enim Phryges!’

  Virg.

As I was the other day standing in my Bookseller’s Shop, a pretty young Thing about Eighteen Years of Age, stept out of her Coach, and brushing by me, beck’ned the Man of the Shop to the further end of his Counter, where she whispered something to him with an attentive Look, and at the same time presented him with a Letter:  After which, pressing the End of her Fan upon his Hand, she delivered the remaining part of her Message, and withdrew.  I observed, in the midst of her Discourse, that she flushed, and cast an Eye upon me over her Shoulder, having been informed by my Bookseller, that I was the Man of the short Face, whom she had so often read of.  Upon her passing by me, the pretty blooming Creature smiled in my Face, and dropped me a Curtsie.  She scarce gave me time to return her Salute, before she quitted the Shop with an easie Scuttle, and stepped again into her Coach, giving the Footman Directions to drive where they were bid.  Upon her Departure, my Bookseller gave me a Letter, superscribed, To the ingenious Spectator, which the young Lady had desired him to deliver into my own Hands, and to tell me that the speedy Publication of it would not only oblige her self, but a whole Tea-Table of my Friends.  I opened it therefore, with a Resolution to publish it, whatever it should contain, and am sure, if any of my Male Readers will be so severely critical as not to like it, they would have been as well pleased with it as my self, had they seen the Face of the pretty Scribe.