on, so unjustly with Miss Jennings.

She had heard Jermyn spoken of as a hero in affairs of love and
gallantry. Miss Price, in the recital of those of the Duchess of
Cleveland, had often mentioned him, without in any respect diminishing
the insignificancy with which fame insinuated he had conducted himself
in those amorous encounters: she nevertheless had the greatest curiosity
to see a man, whose entire person, she thought, must be a moving trophy,
and monument of the favours and freedoms of the fair sex.

Thus Jermyn arrived at the right time to satisfy her curiosity by his
presence; and though his brilliancy appeared a little tarnished by his
residence in the country; though his head was larger, and his legs more
slender than usual, yet the giddy girl thought she had never seen any
man so perfect; and yielding to her destiny, she fell in love with him,
a thousand times more unaccountably than all the others had done before
her. Everybody remarked this change of conduct in her with surprise;
for they expected something more from the delicacy of a person who, till
this time, had behaved with so much propriety in all her actions.

Jermyn was not in the least surprised at this conquest, though not a
little proud of it; for his heart had very soon as great a share in
it as his vanity. Talbot, who saw with amazement the rapidity of this
triumph, and the disgrace of his own defeat, was ready to die with
jealousy and spite; yet he thought it would be more to his credit to die
than to vent those passions unprofitably; and shielding himself under
a feigned indifference, he kept at a distance to view how far such an
extravagant prepossession would proceed.

In the mean time Jermyn quietly enjoyed the happiness of seeing the
inclinations of the prettiest and most extraordinary creature in
England declared in his favour. The duchess, who had taken her under her
protection ever since she had declined placing herself under that of the
duke, sounded Jermyn's intentions towards her, and was satisfied
with the assurances she received from a man, whose probity infinitely
exceeded his merit in love: he therefore let all the court see that he
was willing to marry her, though, at the same time, he did not appear
particularly desirous of hastening the consummation. Every person now
complimented Miss Jennings upon having reduced to this situation the
terror of husbands, and the plague of lovers: the court was in full
expectation of this