ted
two widows, who are now in that state I have often heard you call an
after-life; I suppose you mean by it an existence which grows out of
past entertainments, and is an untimely delight in the satisfactions
which they once set their hearts upon too much to be ever able to
relinquish. Have but patience," continued he, "till I give you a
succinct account of my ladies and of this night's adventure. They are
much of an age, but very different in their characters. The one of
them, with all the advances which years have made upon her, goes on in a
certain romantic road of love and friendship, which she fell into in her
teens; the other has transferred the amorous passions of her first years
to the love of cronies, pets, and favourites, with which she is always
surrounded; but the genius of each of them will best appear by the
account of what happened to me at their houses. About five this
afternoon, being tired with study, the weather inviting, and time
lying a little upon my hands, I resolved, at the instigation of my evil
genius, to visit them; their husbands having been our contemporaries.
This I thought I could do without much trouble; for both live in the
very next street. I went first to my lady Camomile; and the butler, who
had lived long in the family, and seen me often in his master's time,
ushered me very civilly into the parlour, and told me, though my lady
had given strict orders to be denied, he was sure I might be admitted,
and bid the black boy acquaint his lady that I was come to wait upon
her. In the window lay two letters; one broken open, the other fresh
sealed with a wafer; the first directed to the divine Cosmelia, the
second to the charming Lucinda; but both, by the indented characters,
appeared to have been writ by very unsteady hands. Such uncommon
addresses increased my curiosity, and put me upon asking my old friend
the butler if he knew who those persons were. 'Very well,' says he;
'this is from Mrs. Furbish to my lady, an old schoolfellow and great
crony of her ladyship's: and this the answer.' I inquired in what county
she lived. 'Oh, dear!' says he, 'but just by, in the neighbourhood. Why,
she was here all this morning, and that letter came and was answered
within these two hours. They have taken an odd fancy, you must know, to
call one another hard names; but, for all that, they love one another
hugely.' By this time the boy returned with his lady's humble service to
me, desiring I would excu