ures upon temperance, simplicity,
and contentment were entirely disregarded. Some distinctions lately
paid us by our betters awakened that pride which I had laid asleep, but
not removed. Our windows again, as formerly, were filled with washes for
the neck and face. The sun was dreaded as an enemy to the skin without
doors and the fire as a spoiler of the complexion within. My wife
observed that rising too early would hurt her daughters' eyes, that
working after dinner would redden their noses, and she convinced me that
the hands never looked so white as when they did nothing.

Instead, therefore, of finishing George's shirts, we now had the girls
new-modeling their old gauzes. The poor Miss Flamboroughs, their former
gay companions, were cast off as mean acquaintance, and the whole
conversation ran upon high life and high-lived company, with pictures,
taste, and Shakespeare.

But we could have borne all this, had not a fortune-telling gypsy come
to raise us into perfect [v]sublimity. The tawny [v]sibyl no sooner
appeared than my girls came running to me for a shilling apiece to cross
her hand with silver. To say the truth, I was tired of being always
wise, and could not help gratifying their request, because I loved to
see them happy. I gave each of them a shilling; after they had been
closeted up with the fortune-teller for some time, I knew by their
looks, upon their returning, that they had been promised something
great.

"Well, my girls, how have you sped? Tell me, Livy, has the
fortune-teller given thee a penny-worth?"

"She positively declared that I am to be married to a squire in less
than a twelvemonth."

"Well, now, Sophy, my child," said I, "and what sort of husband are you
to have?"

"I am to have a lord soon after my sister has married the squire," she
replied.

"How," cried I, "is that all you are to have for your two shillings?
Only a lord and a squire for two shillings! You fools, I could have
promised you a prince and a [v]nabob for half the money."

This curiosity of theirs, however, was attended with very serious
effects. We now began to think ourselves designed by the stars to
something exalted, and already anticipated our future grandeur.

In this agreeable time my wife had the most lucky dreams in the world,
which she took care to tell us every morning, with great solemnity and
exactness. It was one night a coffin and cross-bones, the sign of an
approaching wedding; at another time she