ered: the woman whom he could once get within his power,
was considered as lost to all hope of dominion or of quiet: for he would
detect artifice and defeat allurement; and if once he discovered any
failure of conduct, would believe his own eyes, in defiance of tears,
caresses, and protestations.

In pursuance of these sage principles, I proceeded to form my schemes;
and while I was yet in the first bloom of youth, was taken out at an
assembly by Mr. Frisk. I am afraid my cheeks glowed, and my eyes
sparkled; for I observed the looks of all my superintendants fixed
anxiously upon me; and I was next day cautioned against him from all
hands, as a man of the most dangerous and formidable kind, who had writ
verses to one lady, and then forsaken her only because she could not
read them, and had lampooned another for no other fault than defaming
his sister.

Having been hitherto accustomed to obey, I ventured to dismiss Mr.
Frisk, who happily did not think me worth the labour of a lampoon. I was
then addressed by Mr. Sturdy, and congratulated by all my friends on the
manors of which I was shortly to be lady: but Sturdy's conversation was
so gross, that after the third visit I could endure him no longer; and
incurred, by dismissing him, the censure of all my friends, who declared
that my nicety was greater than my prudence, and that they feared it
would be my fate at last to be wretched with a wit.

By a wit, however, I was never afterwards attacked, but lovers of every
other class, or pretended lovers, I have often had; and, notwithstanding
the advice constantly given me, to have no regard in my choice to my own
inclinations, I could not forbear to discard some for vice, and some for
rudeness. I was once loudly censured for refusing an old gentleman who
offered an enormous jointure, and died of the phthisic a year after; and
was so baited with incessant importunities, that I should have given my
hand to Drone the stock-jobber, had not the reduction of interest made
him afraid of the expenses of matrimony.

Some, indeed, I was permitted to encourage; but miscarried of the main
end, by treating them according to the rules of art which had been
prescribed me. Altilis, an old maid, infused into me so much haughtiness
and reserve, that some of my lovers withdrew themselves from my frown,
and returned no more; others were driven away, by the demands of
settlement which the widow Trapland directed me to make; and I have
learned,