ve was ignorant
of my sex all that time, as being quite absorbed in contemplation. About
four o'clock in the afternoon I was ordered to lay the cloth, and place
two covers, which I understood were for my mistress and her niece, whom
I had not as yet seen. Though I was not very dexterous at this work, I
performed it pretty well for a beginner, and, when dinner was upon the
table, saw my mistress approach, accompanied by the young lady, whose
name for the present shall be Narcissa. So much sweetness appeared in
the countenance and carriage of this amiable apparition, that my heart
was captivated at first sight, and while dinner lasted, I gazed upon her
without intermission. Her age seemed to be seventeen, her stature tall,
her shape unexceptionable, her hair, that fell down upon her ivory neck
in ringlets, black as jet; her arched eyebrows of the same colour;
her eyes piercing, yet tender; her lips of the consistence and hue of
cherries; her complexion clear, delicate and healthy; her aspect noble,
ingenuous, and humane; and the whole person so ravishingly delightful,
that it was impossible for any creature endued with sensibility, to see
without admiring, and admire without loving her to excess. I began to
curse the servile station that placed me so far beneath the regard of
this idol of my adoration! and yet I blessed my fate, that enabled me to
enjoy daily the sight of so much perfection! When she spoke I listened
with pleasure; but when she spoke to me, my soul was thrilled with an
extacy of tumultuous joy. I was even so happy as to be the subject of
their conversation; for Narcissa, having observed me, said to her aunt,
"I see your new footman is come." Then addressing herself to me, asked,
with ineffable complacency, if I was the person who had been so cruelly
used by robbers? When I had satisfied her in this; she expressed a
desire of knowing the other particulars of my fortune, both before and
since my being shipwrecked: hereupon (as Mrs. Sagely had counselled me)
I told her that I had been bound apprentice to the master of a ship,
contrary to my inclination, which ship had foundered at sea; that I and
four more, who chanced to be on deck when she went down, made shift
to swim to the shore, when my companions, after having overpowered me,
stripped me to the shirt, and left me, as they imagined, dead of the
wounds I received in my own defence. Then I related the circumstances
of being found in a barn, with the inhuma