d be too late to repent of my folly, after my presumption
had incurred its just punishment.'

"So saying, she left the summer-house with a polite dignity, which, as
he afterward told me, increased his passion, while it inflamed his pride
almost to madness. Finding she refused to appear, he quitted the house,
but not his design. His applications have since been repeated, but
though he has met with the firmest repulses, both from the parents and
the daughter, he can not be prevailed upon to relinquish his hope. It is
so far a misfortune to us, as Lucilla now never comes near us, except he
is known not to be in the country. Had the objection been to his person,
or fortune, he says, as it would have been substantial, it might have
been insuperable; but where the only ground of difference is mere matter
of opinion, he is sure that time and perseverance will conquer such a
chimerical objection."

I returned to the Grove, not only cured of every jealous feeling, but
transported with such a decisive proof of the dignity and purity of Miss
Stanley's mind.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Miss Sparkes, a neighboring lady, whom the reputation of being a wit and
an amazon, had kept single at the age of five-and-forty, though her
person was not disagreeable, and her fortune considerable, called in one
morning while we were at breakfast. She is remarkable for her pretension
to odd and opposite qualities. She is something of a scholar, and a
huntress, a politician, and a farrier. She outrides Mr. Flam, and
outargues Mr. Tyrrel; excels in driving four in hand, and in canvassing
at an election. She is always anxious about the party, but never about
the candidate, in whom she requires no other merit but his being in the
opposition, which she accepts as a pledge for all other merit. In her
adoption of any talent, or her exercise of any quality, it is always
sufficient recommendation to her that it is not feminine.

From the window we saw her descend from her lofty phaeton, and when she
came,

The cap, the whip, the masculine attire,

the loud voice, the intrepid look, the independent air, the whole
deportment indicated a disposition rather to confer protection than to
accept it.

She made an apology for her intrusion, by saying that her visit was
rather to the stable than the breakfast-room. One of her horses was a
little lame, and she wanted to consult Mr. Stanley's groom, who, it
seems, was her oracle in that science, in which she