when
they know there are several men of five hundred a year who do not
believe it.
THE WIDOW.
In my first description of the company in which I pass most of my time,
it may be remembered that I mentioned a great affliction which my
friend Sir Roger had met with in his youth; which was no less than a
disappointment in love. It happened this evening that we fell into a
very pleasing walk at a distance from his house. As soon as we came into
it, "It is," quoth the good old man, looking round him with a smile,
"very hard, that any part of my land should be settled upon one who has
used me so ill as the perverse widow did; and yet I am sure I could
not see a sprig of any bough of this whole walk of trees, but I should
reflect upon her and her severity. She has certainly the finest hand
of any woman in the world. You are to know this was the place wherein I
used to muse upon her; and by that custom I can never come into it,
but the same tender sentiments revive in my mind, as if I had actually
walked with that beautiful creature under these shades. I have been
fool enough to carve her name on the bark of several of these trees;
so unhappy is the condition of men in love, to attempt the removing of
their passions by the methods which serve only to imprint it deeper. She
has certainly the finest hand of any woman in the world."
Here followed a profound silence; and I was not displeased to observe
my friend falling so naturally into a discourse, which I had ever
before taken notice he industriously avoided. After a very long pause he
entered upon an account of this great circumstance in his life, with
an air which I thought raised my idea of him above what I had ever had
before; and gave me the picture of that chearful mind of his, before
it received that stroke which has ever since affected his words and
actions. But he went on as follows:
"I came to my estate in my twenty-second year, and resolved to follow
the steps of the most worthy of my ancestors who have inhabited this
spot of earth before me, in all the methods of hospitality and good
neighbourhood, for the sake of my fame; and in country sports and
recreations, for the sake of my health. In my twenty-third year I was
obliged to serve as sheriff of the county; and in my servants, officers,
and whole equipage, indulged the pleasure of a young man (who did not
think ill of his own person) in taking that public occasion of shewing
my figure and behaviour to
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