 to dine this very Day with her Aunt Western,
and in the Afternoon, they were all three by Appointment to go together to the
Opera, and thence to Lady Thomas Hatchet's Drum. Sophia would have gladly been
excused from all, but she would not disoblige her Aunt; and as to the Arts of
counterfeiting Illness, she was so entirely a Stranger to them, that it never
once entered into her Head. When she was drest, therefore, down she went,
resolved to encounter all the Horrours of the Day, and a most disagreeable one
it proved; for Lady Bellaston took every Opportunity very civilly and slily to
insult her; to all which her Dejection of Spirits disabled her from making any
Return; and indeed, to confess the Truth, she was at the very best but an
indifferent Mistress of Repartee.
    Another Misfortune which befel poor Sophia, was the Company of Lord Fellamar
, whom she met at the Opera, and who attended her to the Drum. And though both
Places were too publick to admit of any Particularities, and she was farther
relieved by the Musick at the one Place, and by the Cards at the other, she
could not however enjoy herself in his Company: for there is something of
Delicacy in Women, which will not suffer them to be ever easy in the Presence of
a Man whom they know to have Pretensions to them, which they are disinclined to
favour.
    Having in this Chapter twice mentioned a Drum, a Word which our Posterity,
it is hoped, will not understand in the Sense it is here applied, we shall,
notwithstanding our present Haste, stop a Moment to describe the Entertainment
here meant, and the rather as we can in a Moment describe it.
    A Drum then is an Assembly of well dressed Persons of both Sexes, most of
whom play at Cards, and the rest do nothing at all; while the Mistress of the
House performs the Part of the Landlady at an Inn, and like the Landlady of an
Inn prides herself in the Number of her Guests, though she doth not always, like
her, get any Thing by it.
    No wonder then as so much Spirits must be required to support any Vivacity
in these Scenes of Dulness, that we hear Persons of Fashion eternally
complaining of the Want of them; a Complaint confined entirely to upper Life.
How insupportable must we imagine this Round of Impertinence to have been to
Sophia, at this time; how difficult must she have found it to force the
Appearance of Gaiety into her Looks, when her Mind dictated nothing but the
tenderest Sorrow, and when every
