Instead of singing about the house as formerly, she
goes about pale and sighing, and is apt to break into tears when her
companions are full of merriment.
Mrs. Hannah, the vestal gentlewoman of my Lady Lillycraft, has had
long talks and walks with Phoebe, up and down the avenue of an
evening; and has endeavoured to squeeze some of her own verjuice into
the other's milky nature. She speaks with contempt and abhorrence of
the whole sex, and advises Phoebe to despise all the men as heartily
as she does. But Phoebe's loving temper is not to be curdled; she has
no such thing as hatred or contempt for mankind in her whole
composition. She has all the simple fondness of heart of poor, weak,
loving woman; and her only thoughts at present are how to conciliate
and reclaim her wayward swain.
The spells and love-charms, which are matters of sport to the other
domestics, are serious concerns with this love-stricken damsel. She is
continually trying her fortune in a variety of ways. I am told that
she has absolutely fasted for six Wednesdays and three Fridays
successively, having understood that it was a sovereign charm to
insure being married to one's liking within the year. She carries
about, also, a lock of her sweetheart's hair, and a riband he once
gave her, being a mode of producing constancy in a lover.
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