our time during a cheerful and elegant meal. After dinner his lady
left the room, as did also the children. As soon as we were alone,
he took me by the hand: 'Well, my good friend,' says he, 'I am
heartily glad to see thee; I was afraid you would never have seen
all the company that dined with you to-day again. Do not you think
the good woman of the house a little altered since you followed her
from the playhouse to find out who she was for me?' I perceived a
tear fall down his cheek as he spoke, which moved me not a little.
But, to turn the discourse, I said, 'She is not, indeed, that
creature she was when she returned me the letter I carried from you,
and told me, "She hoped, as I was a gentleman, I would be employed
no more to trouble her, who had never offended me; but would be so
much the gentleman's friend as to dissuade him from a pursuit which
he could never succeed in." You may remember I thought her in
earnest, and you were forced to employ your cousin Will, who made
his sister get acquainted with her for you. You cannot expect her to
be for ever fifteen.' 'Fifteen!' replied my good friend. 'Ah! you
little understand--you, that have lived a bachelor--how great, how
exquisite a pleasure there is in being really beloved! It is
impossible that the most beauteous face in nature should raise in me
such pleasing ideas as when I look upon that excellent woman. That
fading in her countenance is chiefly caused by her watching with me
in my fever. This was followed by a fit of sickness, which had like
to have carried me off last winter. I tell you, sincerely, I have so
many obligations to her that I cannot, with any sort of moderation,
think of her present state of health. But, as to what you say of
fifteen, she gives me every day pleasure beyond what I ever knew in
the possession of her beauty when I was in the vigour of youth.
Every moment of her life brings me fresh instances of her
complacency to my inclinations, and her prudence in regard to my
fortune. Her face is to me much more beautiful than when I first saw
it; there is no decay in any feature which I cannot trace from the
very instant it was occasioned by some anxious concern for my
welfare and interests. Thus, at the same time, methinks, the love I
conce