Grace, 'Sir, I fear
you have found me a grievous Weight.' Whereupon he answered me that so
light was my weight, that his Heart was the Heavier for the Putting of
me down, which was a Conceit not reasonable but most kindly intended.
Whereon I thanked him, and he vowed such a Burden would he gladly carry
to the World's End had he but Leave given."

Another picture not unpleasant to the mind's eye, the overturned coach,
the esteemed guardian of the youthful beauty delaying a little in its
immediate neighborhood, perhaps to secure the safety of some precious
package, the farm laborers in the green adjacent fields dropping their
tools and running forward to help, the outcry and confusion, and apart,
in the summer sunshine, the handsome fellow with the flashing sword by
his side, listening with bent head and admiring eyes to the thanks which
Mistress Mary, with her untidy hair and lifted eyes, was tendering with
"but little Grace."

"Such chance meeting of the Sexes," says our astute commentator, "where
appear what is most commanding in the One and most dependent in the
Other, are but ill advised. The Uttering of such vain proffers as the
carrying the Burden of Mary Twining to the World's End, and other
Foolishness, hath then a Savour of Reality which concealeth the vain
Delusion."

We have delayed too long over these extracts, and though I am tempted to
delay yet longer, so quaint is the contrast between Mary Twining's
youthful and feminine pen and that of her critical biographer, I pass on
to a time some months after her arrival home. Indeed, she writes little
in the interval. The coming into a new and wider circle, the adapting
herself to new conditions, leave her scant time for writing. There is a
rapid noting of events, for it was an eventful time,--the mention of a
few distinguished names, and that is all. But in order to follow the
thread of Mary Twining's romance, we must pause at the account of a ball
given to one of General Washington's regiments at a time before the
rigor of war had quenched all thoughts of merry-making. It was not her
first ball. She had mixed freely in society, and had measured herself
with the men and women about her,--always an interesting experience to
the free, unprejudiced and thoughtful girl.

"It was a joyous Scene enough," she writes, "but I myself not quite in
the Humour for such Junketing. I had a gloomy Fancy that Reason would
not dismiss, that in these Troublous Times there were T