Pretty well. But a little too frolicky that air.—Yet have I prepared my
beloved to expect in you both great vivacity and quality-freedom.
Curse those eyes!—Those glancings will never do. A down-cast bashful
turn, if you can command it. Look upon me. Suppose me now to be my
beloved.
Devil take that leer. Too significantly arch!—Once I knew you the girl
I would now have you to be.
Sprightly, but not confident, cousin Charlotte!—Be sure forget not to
look down, or aside, when looked at. When eyes meet eyes, be your’s the
retreating ones. Your face will bear examination.
O Lord! Lord! that so young a creature can so soon forget the innocent
appearance she first charmed by; and which I thought born with you
all!—Five years to ruin what twenty had been building up! How natural
the latter lesson! How difficult to regain the former!
A stranger, as I hope to be saved, to the principal arts of your
sex!—Once more, what a devil has your heart to do in your eyes?
Have I not told you, that my beloved is a great observer of the eyes?
She once quoted upon me a text,* which showed me how she came by her
knowledge—Dorcas’s were found guilty of treason the first moment she
saw her.
* Eccles. xxvi. The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty
looks and eye-lids. Watch over an impudent eye, and marvel not if it
trespass against thee.
Once more, suppose me to be my charmer.—Now you are to encounter my
examining eye, and my doubting heart—
That’s my dear!