, at the Risk of my Life and the Loss of my Fortune, to bring him voluntarily to pay his Vows at your Feet. O, my Sister, I would to Heaven that he had now been present, as I have been present, to have his Soul melted and minted as mine has been; his Heart must have been harder than the Stones of
Thebes,
if you did not attract it and move it, at pleasure, by the Touch of those Fingers and the Bewitchment of those Accents. --Ah, you Flatterer, she cried, with a Voice tuned to Harmony, and a Face formed of Smiles, you almost tempt me to tell you what, for the World, I would not wish that any one in the World should know. But, I must snatch myself from the Danger. --So saying, and casting at me a vanishing Glance, she was out of sight in a twinkling.
As our Suitors had now been dismissed and our Assemblies discontinued, Miss
Golding
seemed quite pleased with our Family-abridgment; it gave us frequent Occasions of being together; I endeavoured, by a Variety of tender Offices and little Amusements, to dispell or divert the Melancholy under which I thought she laboured; I was greatly surprised at my own Success on this Occasion; her Cheerfulness returned; she discovered new and striking Graces in her Manners and Conversation, and in a little Time did not appear to want any Consolation.
One Day, being on the
Exchange,
I was accosted by a
Jew,
who told me that he wanted a Sum of Money and would either sell or pawn to me a Jewel of great Price. It was a Solitaire composed of Oriental Pearls, with a Diamond of the first Water and Magnitude in the Centre: After some chaffering, we agreed for three thousand Pieces, and I put it into my Pocketbook. As my Business detained me on the
Exchange
till it was late, I dined with two or three Acquaintance at the Chop-House and did not return till the Evening was advanced.
On my entering, I was told that Mr.
Golding
was abroad, and that Miss
Matilda
had just ordered Coffee for some Ladies in her Dressing-room. Immediately I ran up and opened the Door without Ceremony, but was instantly struck with the Look which she turned tow'rd me, a Look that at once intimated Dejection and Disgust. During Coffee, I endeavoured to behave with my usual Unconcern, but found it impossible to avoid sharing in that Constraint under which Miss
Matilda
most evidently laboured; in short, a gloomy Stiffness spread through the
