ld
there.'

"When she was extremely ill, her physician said, 'Madam, you are
near the bottom of the hill, but we will endeavour to get you up
again.' She answered, 'Doctor, I fear I shall be out of breath
before I get up to the top.'

"A very dirty clergyman of her acquaintance, who affected smartness
and repartees, was asked by some of the company how his nails came
to be so dirty. He was at a loss; but she solved the difficulty, by
saying, 'the doctor's nails grew dirty by scratching himself.'

"A quaker apothecary sent her a vial, corked; it had a broad brim,
and a label of paper about its neck. 'What is that?'--said she--'my
apothecary's son!' The ridiculous resemblance, and the suddenness of
the question, set us all a-laughing."--_Swift's Works_, SCOTT'S ed.,
vol. ix, 295-6.

52 "I am so hot and lazy after my morning's walk, that I loitered at
Mrs. Vanhomrigh's, where my best gown and periwig was, and _out of
mere listlessness dine there, very often_; so I did
to-day."--_Journal to Stella._ Mrs. Vanhomrigh, Vanessa's mother, was
the widow of a Dutch merchant who held lucrative appointments in
King William's time. The family settled in London in 1709, and had a
house in Bury Street, St. James's--a street made notable by such
residents us Swift and Steele; and, in our own time, Moore and
Crabbe.

53 "Vanessa was excessively vain. The character given of her by Cadenus
is fine painting, but in general fictitious. She was fond of dress;
impatient to be admired; very romantic in her turn of mind;
superior, in her own opinion, to all her sex; full of pertness,
gaiety, and pride; not without some agreeable accomplishments, but
far from being either beautiful or genteel;... happy in the thoughts
of being reported Swift's concubine, but still aiming and intending
to be his wife."--LORD ORRERY.

54 "You bid me be easy, and you would see me as often as you could. You
had better have said, as often as you can get the better of your
inclinations so much; or as often as you remember there was such a
one in the world. If you continue to treat me as you do, you will
not be made uneasy by me long. It is impossible to describe what I
have suffered since I saw you last: I am sure I could have borne the
rack much