 signify, that as it is the Nature of a Kite
to devour little Birds, so is it the Nature of such Persons as Mrs. Wilkins, to
insult and tyrannize over little People. This being indeed the Means which they
use to recompense to themselves their extreme Servility and Condescension to
their Superiors; for nothing can be more reasonable, than that Slaves and
Flatterers should exact the same Taxes on all below them, which they themselves
pay to all above them.
    Whenever Mrs. Deborah had Occasion to exert any extraordinary Condescension
to Miss Bridget, and by that means had a little sowered her natural Disposition,
it was usual with her to walk forth among these People, in order to refine her
Temper, by venting, and, as it were, purging off all ill Humours; on which
Account, she was by no means a welcome Visitant; to say the Truth, she was
universally dreaded and hated by them all.
    On her Arrival in this Place, she went immediately to the Habitation of an
elderly Matron; to whom, as this Matron had the good Fortune to resemble herself
in the Comeliness of her Person, as well as in her Age, she had generally been
more favourable than to any of the rest. To this Woman she imparted what had
happened, and the Design upon which she was come thither that Morning. These two
began presently to scrutinize the Characters of the several young Girls, who
lived in any of those Houses, and at last fixed their strongest Suspicion on one
Jenny Jones, who they both agreed was the likeliest Person to have committed
this Fact.
    This Jenny Jones was no very comely Girl, either in her Face or Person; but
Nature had somewhat compensated the Want of Beauty with what is generally more
esteemed by those Ladies, whose Judgment is arrived at Years of perfect
Maturity; for she had given her a very uncommon Share of Understanding. This
Gift Jenny had a good deal improved by Erudition. She had lived several Years a
Servant with a Schoolmaster, who discovering a great Quickness of Parts in the
Girl, and an extraordinary Desire of learning, (for every leisure Hour she was
always found reading in the Books of the Scholars) had the Good-nature, or Folly
(just as the Reader pleases to call it), to instruct her so far, that she
obtained a competent Skill in the Latin Language, and was perhaps as good a
Scholar as most of the young Men of Quality of the Age. This Advantage, however,
like most others of an extraordinary Kind, was attended with some small
Inconveniencies: For as it is not to
