“As how, Sir?” said she, as he told me, with so bewitching an air, between attentive and pleasant, that, bold gentleman, forgetting all manner of distance, so early too! he clasped his arms around her waist, and saluted her, struggling with anger and indignation, he says; but I think little of that!

“Whence this insolence?  How, now, Sir!  Begone!” were her words, and she rung the bell; but he set his back against the door—­(I never heard such boldness in my life, Madam!)—­till she would forgive him.  And, it is plain, she was not so angry as she pretended:  for her woman coming, she was calmer;—­“Nelthorpe,” said she, “fetch my snuff box, with the lavender in it.”

Her woman went; and then she said, “You told me, Sir, last night, of your intrepidness:  I think you are the boldest man I ever met with:  but, Sir, surely you ought to know, that you are not now in the Haymarket.”

I think, truly, Madam, the lady might have saved herself that speech:  for, upon my word, they neither of them wore masks—­Though they ought to have put on one of blushes—­I am sure I do for them, while I am writing.  Her irresistible loveliness served for an excuse, that she could not disapprove from a man she disliked not:  and his irresistible—­may I say, assurance, Madam?—­found too ready an excuse.

“Well, but, Sir,” said I, “pray, when her ladyship was made acquainted that you were a married gentleman, how then?—­Pray, did she find it out, or did you tell her?”—­“Patience, my dear!”—­“Well pray, Sir, go on.—­What was next?”

“Why, next, I put on a more respectful and tender air:  I would have taken her hand indeed, but she would not permit it; and when she saw I would not go till her lavender snuff came down (for so I told her, and her woman was not in haste), she seated herself, and I sat by her, and began to talk about a charming lady I saw the night before, after parting with her ladyship, but not equal by any means to her:  and I was confident this would engage her attention; for I never knew the lady who thought herself handsome, that was not taken by this topic.  Flattery and admiration, Pamela, are the two principal engines by which our sex make their first approaches to yours; and if you listen to us, we are sure, either by the sap or the mine, to succeed, and blow you up when ever we please, if we do but take care to suit ourselves to your particular foibles; or, to carry on the metaphor, point our batteries to your weak side—­for the strongest fortresses, my dear, are weaker in one place than another.”—­“A fine thing, Sir,” said I, “to be so learned a gentleman!”—­“I wish, however,” thought I, “you had always come honestly by your knowledge.”

“When the lavender snuff came down, we were engaged in an agreeable disputation, which I had raised on purpose to excite her opposition, she having all the advantage in it; and in order to my giving it up, when she was intent upon it, as a mark of my consideration for her.”