y my God I
will!"

"Well, Ursula, I assure you that I shall sinivate, as you call it,
nothing of the kind about you. I have no doubt, from what you have said,
that you are a very paragon of virtue--a perfect Lucretia; but . . ."

"My name is Ursula, brother, and not Lucretia: Lucretia is not of our
family, but one of the Bucklands; she travels about Oxfordshire; yet I am
as good as she any day."

"Lucretia! how odd! Where could she have got that name? Well, I make no
doubt, Ursula, that you are quite as good as she, and she of her namesake
of ancient Rome; but there is a mystery in this same virtue, Ursula,
which I cannot fathom! how a thief and a liar should be able, or indeed
willing, to preserve her virtue is what I don't understand. You confess
that you are very fond of gold. Now, how is it that you don't barter
your virtue for gold sometimes? I am a philosopher, Ursula, and like to
know everything. You must be every now and then exposed to great
temptation, Ursula: for you are of a beauty calculated to captivate all
hearts. Come, sit down and tell me how you are enabled to resist such
temptation as gold and fine clothes?"

"Well, brother," said Ursula, "as you say you mean no harm, I will sit
down beside you, and enter into discourse with you; but I will uphold
that you are the coolest hand that I ever came nigh, and say the coolest
things."

And thereupon Ursula sat down by my side.

"Well, Ursula, we will, if you please, discourse on the subject of your
temptations. I suppose that you travel very much about, and show
yourself in all kinds of places?"

"In all kinds, brother; I travels, as you say, very much, attends fairs
and races, and enters booths and public-houses, where I tells fortunes,
and sometimes dances and sings."

"And do not people often address you in a very free manner?"

"Frequently, brother; and I give them tolerably free answers."

"Do people ever offer to make you presents? I mean presents of value,
such as . . ."

"Silk handkerchiefs, shawls, and trinkets; very frequently, brother."

"And what do you do, Ursula?"

"I take what people offers me, brother, and stows it away as soon as I
can."

"Well, but don't people expect something for their presents? I don't
mean dukkerin, dancing, and the like; but such a moderate and innocent
thing as a choomer, {298} Ursula?"

"Innocent thing, do you call it, brother?"

"The world calls it so, Ursula. Well, do the people who