ranger conducted me home, where my father having
learned the signal service he had done me, loaded him with caresses, and
insisted on his lodging that night at our house. If the obligation he
had conferred upon me justly inspired me with sentiments of gratitude,
his appearance and conversation seemed to entitle him to somewhat more.
He was about the age of two-and-twenty, among the tallest of the middle
size; had chestnut-coloured hair, which he wore tied up in a ribbon; a
high polished forehead, a nose inclining to the aquiline, lively blue
eyes, red pouting lips, teeth as white as snow, and a certain openness
of countenance--but why need I describe any more particulars of his
person? I hope you will do me the justice to believe I do not flatter,
when I say he was the exact resemblance of you; and if I had not been
well acquainted with his family and degree, I should have made no
scruple of concluding that you was his brother. He spoke and seemed to
have no reserve: for what he said was ingenuous, sensible, and uncommon.
"In short," said she, bursting into tears, "he was formed for the ruin of
our sex. His behaviour was modest and respectful, but his looks were
so significant, that I could easily observe he secretly blessed the
occasion that introduced him to my acquaintance. We learned from his
discourse that he was the eldest son of a wealthy gentleman in the
neighbourhood, to whose name we were no strangers--that he had been to
visit an acquaintance in the country, from whose house he was returning
home, when my shrieks brought him to my rescue."

'All night long my imagination formed a thousand ridiculous
expectations: there was so much of knight-errantry in this gentleman's
coming to the relief of a damsel in distress, with whom he immediately
became enamoured, that all I had read of love and chivalry recurred
to my fancy; and I looked upon myself as a princess in some region of
romance, who being delivered from the power of some brutal giant or
satyr, by a generous Oroondates, was bound in gratitude, as well as led
by inclination, to yield up my affections to him without reserve. In
vain did I endeavour to chastise these foolish conceits by reflections
more reasonable and severe: the amusing images took full possession of
my mind, and my dreams represented my hero sighing at my feet, in the
language of a despairing lover. Next morning after breakfast he took
his leave, when my father begged the favour of further a