ind
a mate to her inclination in the city: for I cannot suppose that she
remained so long unsolicited; though the charms of her person were
not altogether enchanting, nor her manner over and above agreeable.
Exclusive of a very wan (not to call it sallow) complexion, which,
perhaps, was the effects of her virginity and mortification, she had
a cast in her eyes that was not at all engaging; and such an extent of
mouth, as no art or affectation could contract into any proportionable
dimension; then her piety was rather peevish than resigned, and did
not in the least diminish a certain stateliness in her demeanour and
conversation, that delighted in communicating the importance and honour
of her family, which, by the bye, was not to be traced two generations
back by all the power of heraldry or tradition.

She seemed to have renounced all the ideas she had acquired before her
father served the office of sheriff; and the eye which regulated the
dates of all her observation, was the mayoralty of her papa. Nay, so
solicitous was this good lady for the support and propagation of the
family name, that, suppressing every selfish motive, she actually
prevailed upon her brother to combat with his own disposition, and
even surmount it so far, as to declare a passion for the person whom he
afterwards wedded, as we shall see in the sequel. Indeed, she was the
spur that instigated him in all his extraordinary undertakings; and I
question, whether he would or not have been able to disengage himself
from that course of life in which he had so long mechanically moved,
unless he had been roused and actuated by her incessant exhortations.
London, she observed, was a receptacle of iniquity, where an honest,
unsuspecting man was every day in danger of falling a sacrifice to
craft; where innocence was exposed to continual temptations, and virtue
eternally persecuted by malice and slander; where everything was ruled
by caprice and corruption, and merit utterly discouraged and despised.
This last imputation she pronounced with such emphasis and chagrin, as
plainly denoted how far she considered herself as an example of what she
advanced; and really the charge was justified by the constructions that
were put upon her retreat by her female friends, who, far from imputing
it to the laudable motives that induced her, insinuated, in sarcastic
commendations, that she had good reason to be dissatisfied with a place
where she had been so overlooked; an