to look a'ter a customer. I begin to feel as if handling the
sculls a little would be of sarvice to me. We all think idleness be a
very pleasant thing when we're obliged to work but when we are idle,
then we feel that a little work be just as agreeable--that's human
natur'."

I thought that Mary was very likely to forget all her good resolutions,
from her ardent love of admiration, and I was determined to go and break
up the conference. I, therefore, left the boat to Stapleton, and
hastened to the house. I did not like to play the part of an
eavesdropper, and was quite undecided how I should act; whether to go in
at once or not, when, as I passed under the window, which was open, I
heard very plainly the conversation that was going on. I stopped in the
street, and listened to the Dominie in continuation--"But, fair maiden,
_omnia vincit amor_--here am I, Dominie Dobbs, who have long passed the
grand climacteric, and can already muster three score years--who have
authority over seventy boys, being Magister Princeps et Dux of Brentford
Grammar School--who have affectioned only the sciences, and communed
only with the classics--who have ever turned a deaf ear to the
allurements of thy sex, and ever hardened my heart to thy fascination--
here am I, even I, Dominie Dobbs, suing at the feet of a maiden who had
barely ripened into womanhood, who knoweth not to read or write, and
whose father earns his bread by manual labour. I feel it all--I feel
that I am too old--that thou art too young--that I am departing from the
ways of wisdom, and am regardless of my worldly prospects. Still,
_omnia vincit amor_, and I bow to the all-powerful god, doing him homage
through thee, Mary. Vainly have I resisted--vainly have I, as I have
lain in bed, tried to drive thee from my thoughts, and tear thine image
from my heart. Have I not felt thy presence everywhere? Do not I
astonish my worthy coadjutor, Mistress Bately, the matron, by calling
her by the name of Mary, when I had always before addressed her by her
baptismal name of Deborah? Nay, have not the boys in the classes
discovered my weakness, and do they not shout out Mary in the hours of
play? _Mare periculosum et turbidum_ hast thou been to me. I sleep
not--I eat not--and every sign of love which hath been adduced by
Ovidius Naso, whom I have diligently collated, do I find in mine own
person. Speak, then, maiden. I have given vent to my feelings, do thou
the same, that