nk, Mr. Spectator, no one better
than herself.

"My table-book informs me that I danced no less than seven-and-twenty
sets with her at the Assembly. I treated her to the fiddles twice. I
was admitted on several days to her lodging, and received by her with a
great deal of distinction, and, for a time, was entirely her slave. It
was only when I found, from common talk of the company at the Wells, and
from narrowly watching one, who I once thought of asking the most sacred
question a man can put to a woman, that I became aware how unfit she was
to be a country gentleman's wife; and that this fair creature was but a
heartless worldly jilt, playing with affections that she never meant to
return, and, indeed, incapable of returning them. 'Tis admiration such
women want, not love that touches them; and I can conceive, in her old
age, no more wretched creature than this lady will be, when her beauty
hath deserted her, when her admirers have left her, and she hath neither
friendship nor religion to console her.

"Business calling me to London, I went to St. James's Church last
Sunday, and there opposite me sat my beauty of the Wells. Her behavior
during the whole service was so pert, languishing, and absurd; she
flirted her fan, and ogled and eyed me in a manner so indecent, that I
was obliged to shut my eyes, so as actually not to see her, and whenever
I opened them beheld hers (and very bright they are) still staring at
me. I fell in with her afterwards at Court, and at the playhouse; and
here nothing would satisfy her but she must elbow through the crowd
and speak to me, and invite me to the assembly, which she holds at her
house, not very far from Ch-r-ng Cr-ss.

"Having made her a promise to attend, of course I kept my promise; and
found the young widow in the midst of a half-dozen of card tables, and
a crowd of wits and admirers. I made the best bow I could, and advanced
towards her; and saw by a peculiar puzzled look in her face, though she
tried to hide her perplexity, that she had forgotten even my name.

"Her talk, artful as it was, convinced me that I had guessed aright. She
turned the conversation most ridiculously upon the spelling of names and
words; and I replied with as ridiculous fulsome compliments as I could
pay her: indeed, one in which I compared her to an angel visiting the
sick wells, went a little too far; nor should I have employed it, but
that the allusion came from the Second Lesson last Sunday, wh