e with
wonderful accuracy; he hazarded a declaration of love to every woman
between sixteen and sixty, a little under and over also; for, with his
lordship, he came to the very pertinent conclusion, that, if the act
were not taken as a sincerity, it would be as a compliment. This
ready-made adorer for every new-comer was as jealous as he was universal
in his attachments.

Let the imaginative think, and, running over with their mind's eye all
the beautiful sculptures of antiquity, endeavour to picture to
themselves a personation of that commanding goddess that the ancients
venerated under the title of Juno. The figure must be tall, in
proportion faultless, in majesty unrivalled, in grace enchanting; all
the outlines of the form must be full, yet not swelling, and as far
removed from the modern notions of _en bon point_ as possible; let us
add to these the bust of Venus ere she weaned her first-born, the winged
boy-god; and then we may have an adequate idea of the figure of Mrs
Causand. Her face was of that style of beauty that those women who
think themselves delicate are pleased to slander under the name of
bold,--a style of beauty, however, that all men admire, and most men
like. Thirty-five years had only written in a stronger hand those
attractions which must have undergone every phase of loveliness, and
which now, without appearing matronly, seemed stamped with the signs of
a long-enduring maturity. The admiration she excited was general: as
she passed, men paused to look upon her, and women whispered to each
other behind her back. Never, till this paragon had made her
appearance, had I heard of ladies wearing supposititious portions of the
human frame--now I found that envy, or the figure-maker, had improved
almost every member of Mrs Causand's body. It was voted by all the
female scandal of the village, that such perfection could not be
natural; but, since if all were true that was said upon the subject, the
object of their criticism must have been as artificial as Mr
Riprapton's left leg, and she must have been nothing more than an
animated lay-figure, I began to disbelieve these assertions, the more
especially as the lady herself was as easy under them as she was in
every gesture and motion. Whenever she made her appearance, so did my
old friend Mr R; he entertained a platonic attachment for her, and that
the more strongly, as each visit enabled him to entertain every one who
would listen to him, with a