se person I cannot say prejudiced me in her favour,
being entirely dispossessed of that winning grace which attracts
strangers at a first glance.

After measuring me with her eye from head to toe, she sent my dimensions
in a kind of half smile across the room to Lord Baily; then vouchsafed
to ask, how long I had been in this part of the world? which question
was followed by fifty others, that shewed she laboured under the violent
thirst of curiosity; a thirst never to be conquered; for, like dropsical
people, the more they drink in, the more it rages.

My answers were such as I always return to the inquisitive.--Yes,
Madam;--No, Madam;--very well;--very good;--not certain;--quite
undetermin'd.--Finding herself unsuccessful with _me_, she apply'd to
_Lady Powis_; but alas! poor maiden, she could drain nothing from that
fountain; the streams would not flow;--they were driven back, by
endeavouring to force them into a wrong channel.

These were not certainly her first defeats, by the clever way of hiding
her chagrin:--it is gone whilst she adjusts the flower in her bosom,--or
opens and shuts her fan twice.--How can _she_ be mortified by
trifles,--when the _Lord_ of _her heart_,--the sweet, simpering,
fair-faced, Lord Baily keeps his eyes incessantly fixed on her, like
centinels on guard?--They cannot speak, _indeed they cannot_, or I
should expect them to call out every half hour, "All is well."

I admire Lord and Lady Allen. I say, I admire them: their manners are
full of easy freedom, pleasing vivacity.--I cannot admire all the world;
I wish I could.--Mr. and Mrs. Winter happen not to suit my taste;--they
are a kind of people who look down on every one of middle
fortune;--seem to despise ancestry,--yet are always fond of mixing with
the great.--Their rise was too sudden;--they jump'd into life all at
once.--Such quick transitions require great equality of mind;--the blaze
of splendor was too much for their _weak_ eyes;--the _flare_ of surprise
is still visible.

It was some time before the conversation became general.--First, and
ever to have precedence,--the weather;--next, roads;--then
houses,--plantations,--fashions,--dress,--equipage;--and last of all,
politics in a thread-bare coat.

About ten minutes before dinner, Lord Darcey joined us, dress'd most
magnificently in a suit of olive velvet, embroider'd with gold;--his
hair without powder, which became him infinitely.--He certainly appear'd
to great advantage