After a great deal of mix'd chat, frolic and humour,
one of them, observing that there would be a good deal of
time on hand before the assembly-hour, proposed that each
girl should entertain the company with that critical period
of her personal history in which she first exchanged the
maiden state for womanhood. The proposal was approv'd, with
only one restriction of Mrs. Cole, that she, on account of
her age, and I, on account of my titular maidenhead, should
be excused, at least till I had undergone the forms of the
house. This obtain'd me a dispensation, and the promotress
of this amusement was desired to begin.
Her name was Emily; a girl fair to excess, and whose
limbs were, if possible, too well made, since their plump
fullness was rather to the prejudice of that delicate slimness
requir'd by the nicer judges of beauty; her eyes were blue,
and streamed inexpressible sweetness, and nothing could be
prettier than her mouth and lips, which clos'd over a range
of the evenest and whitest teeth. Thus she began:
"Neither my extraction, nor the most critical adventure
of my life, is sublime enough to impeach me of any vanity in
the advancement of the proposal you have approv'd of. My
father and mother were, and for aught I know, are still,
farmers in the country, not above forty miles from town:
their barbarity to me, in favour of a son, on whom only they
vouchsafed to bestow their tenderness, had a thousand times
determined me to fly their house, and throw myself on the
wide world; but, at length, an accident forc'd me on this
desperate attempt at the age of fifteen.
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