at the same time presenting her guitar to her, she was obliged to comply. Her air, her attitude, the exquisite grace with which she touched the little instrument, the sweetness of her voice, and the sensibility in her fine eyes, charmed lady D—, who was an enthusiastick admirer of the art, so that she cried out in a kind of transport,
Mr. Minime! would you not be proud of such a scholar?

"Madam," said the master, bowing,
the young gentlewoman has a very pretty voice and manner, to be sure: but if miss D— applies closely to musick for seven or eight years longer, and does not suffer her mind to be distracted with the study of other sciences, I shall have more reason to be proud of my scholar than any master in the world.


This speech forced a smile from Henrietta, who the third time rose up to be gone, upon hearing a female visiter announced; but lady D—, conceiving that she was not obliged to a strict observation of ceremony with the person that was now entering, again insisted upon Henrietta's staying, telling her, she had thought of something for her; and that she would acquaint her with it as soon as the lady was gone.
Henrietta had but just time to express a grateful acknowledgment of her kindness, when the visiter was introduced. She was a woman or a mean aspect, but had a great deal of selfsufficiency in her air. After the usual compliments were over, she threw herself into an easy chair, and examined Henrietta with such extreme attention, that she blushed.
The lady, who took consequence to herself from the power of throwing on ingenuous mind into confusion, finding that Henrietta was oppressed by her looks, gazed at her the more earnestly: and having indulged herself several minutes in this exertion of her superiority, thought it was now time to make the poor bashful girl stare in her turn, and began to display her wit and learning; the former in an inundation of

words that swallowed up her meaning, and the latter in French words and phrases, brought in to supply the deficiencies of her own native tongue.
Lady D—, who was used to divert herself with the singularity of this woman's character, listened to her with complaisance. But Henrietta, who began to conceive a very mean opinion of a lady who seemed to value herself so highly upon the knowledge of a language, which was now become a part of every cobler's daughter's education, beheld her with an indifference that sensibly wounded her pride, and made her