ite lutestring, flowered with silver, scoured
indeed, but passed on me for spick and span new, a Brussels lace cap,
braited shoes, and the rest in proportion, all second-hand finery, and
procured instantly for the occasion, by the diligence and industry of
the good Mrs. Brown, who had already a chapman for me in the house,
before whom my charms were to pass in review; for he had not only,
in course, insisted on a previous sight of the premises, but also
on immediate surrendering to him, in case of his agreeing for me;
concluding very wisely, that such a place as I was in, was of the
hottest to trust the keeping of such a perishable commodity in, as a
maidenhead.

The care of dressing and tricking me out for the market, was then left
to Phoebe, who acquitted herself, if not well, at least perfectly to the
satisfaction of everything but my impatience of seeing myself dressed.
When it was over, and I viewed myself in the glass, I was no doubt, too
natural, too artless, to hide my childish joy at the change: a change,
in the real truth, for much the worse, since I must have much better
become the neat easy simplicity of my rustic dress than the awkward,
untoward, tawdry finery that I could not conceal my strangeness to.

Phoebe's compliments, however, in which her own share in dressing me was
not forgot, did not a little confirm me in the first notions I had ever
entertained concerning my person; which, be it said without vanity, was
then tolerable to justify a taste for me, and of which it may not be out
of place here to sketch you an unflattered picture.

I was tall, yet not too tall for my age, which, as I before remarked,
was barely turned of fifteen; my shape perfectly straight, thin waisted,
and light and free without owing anything to stays; my hair was a glossy
auburn, and as soft as silk, flowing down my neck in natural curls, and
did not a little to set off the whiteness of a smooth skin; my face was
rather too ruddy, though its features were delicate, and the shape was a
roundish oval, except where a pit on my chin had far from a disagreeable
effect; my eyes were as black as can be imagined, and rather languishing
than sparkling, except on certain occasions, when I have been told they
struck fire fast enough; my teeth, which I ever carefully preserved,
were small, even and white; my bosom was finely raised, and one might
then discern rather the promise than the actual growth of the round,
firm breast, that in a