hard-work; but that she would look over her book, and see what was to be done for me, desiring me to stay a little till she had dispatched some other customers.
On this, I drew back a little, most heartily mortified at a declaration which carried with it a killing uncertainty, that my circumstances could not well endure.
Presently, assuming more courage, and seeking some diversion from my uneasy thoughts, I ventured to lift up my head a little, and sent my eyes on a course round the room, wherein they met full tilt with those of a lady (for such my extreme innocence pronounc'd her) sitting in a corner of the room, dress'd in a velvet mantle (nota bene, in the midst of summer), with her bonnet off; squob-fat, red-faced, and at least fifty.
She look'd as if she would devour me with her eyes, staring at me from head to foot, without the least regard to the confusion and blushes her eying me so fixedly put me to, and which were to
her,
