Phoebe, my kind tutoress Phoebe, was at that time gone
out, perhaps in search of me, or their cook'd-up story had
not, it is probable, pass'd so smoothly.
This negotiation had, however, taken up some time,
which would have appear'd much longer to me, left as I was,
in a strange house, if the landlady, a motherly sort of a
woman, to whom Charles had liberally recommended me, had
not come up and borne me company. We drank tea, and her
chat help'd to pass away the time very agreeably, since he
was our theme; but as the evening deepened, and the hour
set for his return was elaps'd, I could not dispel the
gloom of impatience and tender fears which gathered upon
me, and which our timid sex are apt to feel in proportion
to their love.
Long, however, I did not suffer: the sight of him
over-paid me; and the soft reproach I had prepar'd for him
expired before it reach'd my lips.
I was still a-bed, yet unable to use my legs otherwise
than awkwardly, and Charles flew to me, catched me in his
arms, rais'd and extending mine to meet his dear embrace,
and gives me an account, interrupted by many a sweet paren-
thesis of kisses, of the success of his measures.
I could not help laughing at the fright the old woman
had been put into, which my ignorance, and indeed my want
of innocence, had far from prepar'd me for bespeaking.
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