“If, therefore, a man, be his birth or quality what it will, the higher the worse, presume to wound a lady’s ears with indecent words:  if he endeavour, in his expressions or sentiments, to convey gross or impure ideas to her mind:  if he is continually pressing for her confidence in his honour:  if he requests favours which a lady ought to refuse:  if he can be regardless of his conduct or behaviour to her:  if he can use boisterous or rude freedoms, either to her person or dress—­” [Here poor Miss Cope, by her blushes, bore witness to her case.] “If he avoids speaking of marriage, when he has a fair opportunity of doing it—­” [Here Miss L. looked down and blushed]—­“or leaves it once to a lady to wonder that he does not:—­

“In any, or in all these cases, he is to be suspected, and a lady can have little hope of such a person; nor, as I humbly apprehend, consistent with honour and discretion, encourage his address.”

The ladies were so kind as to applaud all I said, and so did the dean.  Miss Stapylton, Miss Cope, and Miss L. were to write down what they could remember of the conversation:  and our noble guests coming in soon after, with Mr. B., the ladies would have departed; but he prevailed upon them to pass the evening; and Miss L., who had an admirable finger on the harpsichord, as I have before said, obliged us with two or three lessons.  Each of the ladies did the like, and prevailed upon me to play a tune or two:  but Miss Cope, as well as Miss L., surpassed me much.  We all sung too in turns, and Mr. B. took the violin, in which he excels.  Lord Davers obliged us on the violincello:  Mr. H. played on the German flute, and sung us a fop’s song, and performed it in character; so that we had an exceeding gay evening, and parted with great satisfaction on all sides, particularly on the young ladies; for this put them all in good humour, and good spirits, enlivening the former scene, which otherwise might have closed, perhaps more gravely than efficaciously.

The distance of time since this conversation passed, enables me to add what I could not do, when I wrote the account of it, which you have mislaid:  and which take briefly, as follows: 

Miss Stapylton was as good as her word, and wrote down all she could recollect of the conversation:  and I having already sent her the letter she desired, containing my observations upon the flighty style she so much admired, it had such an effect upon her, as to turn the course of her reading and studies to weightier and more solid subjects; and avoiding the gentleman she had begun to favour, gave way to her parents’ recommendations, and is happily married to Sir Jonathan Barnes.

Miss Cope came to me a week after, with the leave of both her parents, and tarried with me three days; in which time she opened all her heart to me, and returned in such a disposition, and with such resolutions, that she never would see her peer again; nor receive letters from him, which she owned to me she had done clandestinely before; and she is now the happy lady of Sir Michael Beaumont, who makes her the best of husbands, and permits her to follow her charitable inclinations according to a scheme which she consulted me upon.