; for whether he wished to make the London beauties deplore
and lament his absence, or whether he wished them to declaim against the
injustice of the age, or rail against the tyranny of the prince, he
continued above half a year in the country, setting up for a little
philosopher, under the eyes of the sportsmen in the neighbourhood, who
regarded him as an extraordinary instance of the caprice of fortune. He
thought the part he acted so glorious, that he would have continued there
much longer had he not heard of Miss Jennings: he did not, however, pay
much attention to what his friends wrote to him concerning her charms,
being persuaded he had seen equally as great in others: what was related
to him of her pride and resistance, appeared to him of far greater
consequence; and to subdue the last, he even looked upon as an action
worthy of his prowess; and quitting his retreat for this purpose, he
arrived in London at the time that Talbot, who was really in love, had
quarrelled, in his opinion, so unjustly with Miss Jennings.

She had heard Jermyn spoken of as a hero in affairs of love and
gallantry. Miss Price, in the recital of those of the Duchess of
Cleveland, had often mentioned him, without in any respect diminishing
the insignificancy with which fame insinuated he had conducted himself in
those amorous encounters: she nevertheless had the greatest curiosity to
see a man, whose entire person, she thought, must be a moving trophy, and
monument of the favours and freedoms of the fair sex.

Thus Jermyn arrived at the right time to satisfy her curiosity by his
presence; and though his brilliancy appeared a little tarnished by his
residence in the country; though his head was larger, and his legs more
slender than usual, yet the giddy girl thought she had never seen any man
so perfect; and yielding to her destiny, she fell in love with him, a
thousand times more unaccountably than all the others had done before
her. Everybody remarked this change of conduct in her with surprise; for
they expected something more from the delicacy of a person who, till this
time, had behaved with so much propriety in all her actions.

Jermyn was not in the least surprised at this conquest, though not a
little proud of it; for his heart had very soon as great a share in it as
his vanity. Talbot, who saw with amazement the rapidity of this triumph,
and the disgrace of his own defeat, was ready to die with jealousy and
spite; yet he thought i