as indisposed. Her monstrous affectation completed the disgust I had
conceived for her at her first appearance, and it was a long time before
I could command myself so much as to behave with common civility: at
length, however, I recollected myself, and pronounced an apology for my
behaviour, which I said proceeded from a dizziness that seized me all
of a sudden. My hoary Dulcinea, who, no doubt, had been alarmed at my
confusion, no sooner learned the cause to which I now ascribed it, than
she discovered her joy in a thousand amorous coquetries, and assumed the
sprightly airs of a girl of sixteen. One while she ogled me with her dim
eyes, quenched in rheum; then, as if she was ashamed of that freedom,
she affected to look down, blush, and play with her fan; then toss her
head that I might not perceive a palsy that shook it, ask some childish
questions with a lisping accent, giggle and grin with her mouth shut
to conceal the ravage of time upon her teeth, leer upon me again, sigh
piteously, fling herself about in her chair to show her agility, and act
a great many more absurdities that youth and beauty can alone excuse.
Shocked as I was at my disappointment, my disposition was incapable of
affronting any person who loved me; I therefore endeavoured to put a
good face to the matter for the present, resolved to drop the whole
affair as soon as I should get clear of her company; with this view, I
uttered some civil things, and in particular desired to know the name
and condition of the lady who had honoured me so much. She told me her
name was Withers, that she lived with Sir John Sparkle in quality of
governess to his only daughter, in which situation she had picked up
a comfortable sufficiency to make her easy for life; that she had the
pleasure of seeing me at church, where my appearance and deportment made
such an impression upon her heart, that she could enjoy no ease until
she had inquired into my character, which she found so amiable in all
respects, that she yielded to the violence of her inclination, and
ventured to declare her passion with too little regard perhaps to the
decorum of her sex; but she hoped I would forgive a trespass of which
I myself was in some measure the cause, and impute her intrusion to the
irresistible dictates of love. No decayed rake ever swallowed a bolus
with more reluctance than I felt in making a reply suitable to this
compliment, when, instead of the jewel, I found the crazy casket only i