"modern beauties. I remember, old gentleman, how ' often you went home in a day to refresh your countenance and dress, when Teraminta reigned in your heart. As we came up in the coach, I repeated to " my wife some of your verses on her.' With such reflections on little passages which happened long ago, we passed 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 play-house, 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, said I-'She is not, indeed, quite '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

6

her 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 pleasures 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

Thus at the same time, methinks, the love I con'ceived towards her, for what she was, is heightened 'by my gratitude for what she is. The love of a wife is as much above the idle passion commonly called 'by that name, as the loud laughter of buffoons is inferior to the elegant mirth of gentlemen. Oh! 'she is an inestimable jewel. In her examination of 'her household affairs, she shews a certain fearful'ness to find a fault, which makes her servants obey 'her like children; and the meanest we have has an 'ingenuous shame for an offence, not always to be

6

⚫ seen in children in other families. I speak freely to ‹ you, my old friend; ever since her sickness, things 'that gave me the quickest joy before, turn now to a 'certain anxiety. As the children play in the next 6 room, I know the poor things by their steps, and I am considering what they must do, should they lose 'their mother in their tender years. The pleasure I ' used to take in telling my boy stories of the battles, ' and asking my girl questions about the disposal of her baby, and the gossiping of it, is turned into ' inward reflection and melancholy.'

He would have gone on in this tender way, when the good lady entered, and with an inexpressible sweetness in her countenance told us, she had been

scarching

searching her closet for something very good, to treat such an old friend as I was. Her husband's eyes sparkled with pleasure at the cheerfulness of her countenance; and I saw all his fears vanish in an instant. The lady observing something in our looks which shewed we had been more serious than ordinary, and seeing her husband receive her with great concern under a forced cheerfulness, immediately guessed at what we had been talking of; and applying herself to me, said with a smile-'Mr. Bickerstaff, 'do not believe a word of what he tells you, I shall 'still live to have you for my second, as I have often ' promised you, unless he takes more care of himself

than he has done since his coming to town. You 'must know, he tells me, that he finds London is a 'much more healthy place than the country; for he

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sees several of his old acquaintance and school-fel'lows are here young fellows with fair full-bottomed 'periwigs. I could scarce keep him this morning 'from going out open-breasted.' My friend, who is always extremely delighted with her agreeable humour, made her sit down with us. She did it with that easiness which is peculiar to women of sense and to keep up the good humour she had brought in with

her, turned her raillery upon me:

'Mr. Bickerstaff,

'you

you remember you followed me one night from the play-house; supposing you should carry me thither to-morrow night, and lead me into the front-box.' This put us into a long field of discourse about the beauties, who were mothers to the present, and shined in the boxes twenty years ago. I told her I was glad she had transferred so many of her charms, and I did not question but her eldest daughter was within half a year of being a toast.

We were pleasing ourselves with this fantastical preferment of the young lady, when on a sudden we were alarmed with the noise of a drum, and immediately entered my little godson to give me a point of war. His mother, between laughing and chiding, would have put him out of the room; but I would not part with him so. I found, upon conversation with him, though he was a little noisy in his mirth, that the child had excellent parts, and was a great master of all the learning on the other side eight years old. I perceived him a very great historian in Æsop's Fables: but he frankly declared to me his mind, that he did not delight in that learning, because he did not believe they were true; for which reason I found he had very much turned his studies for about a twelvemonth past, into the lives and

adventures