CHAPTER XXXIX

My Reception by that Lady—I become enamoured of Narcissa—recount the

particulars of my last misfortune—acquire the good opinion of my

Mistress—an Account of the young Squire—I am made acquainted with more

particulars of Narcissa’s Situation—conceive a mortal hatred against

Sir Timothy—examine my Lady’s library and performances—her extravagant

behaviour

Fraught with these useful instructions, I repaired to the place of her

habitation, and was introduced by the waiting-woman to the presence of

my lady, who had not before seen me. She sat in her study, with one

foot on the ground, and the other upon a high stool at some distance

from her seat; her sandy locks hung down, in a disorder I cannot call

beautiful, from her head, which was deprived of its coif, for the

benefit of scratching with one hand, while she held the stump of a pen

in the other. Her forehead was high and wrinkled; her eyes were large,

gray, and prominent; her nose was long, and aquiline: her mouth of vast

capacity, her visage meagre and freckled, and her chin peaked like a

shoemaker’s paring knife; her upper lip contained a large quantity of

plain Spanish, which, by continual falling, had embroidered her neck,

that was not naturally very white, and the breast of her gown, that

flowed loose about her with a negligence that was truly poetic,

discovering linen that was very fine, and, to all appearance, never

washed but in Castalian streams. Around her lay heaps of books, globes,

quadrants, telescopes, and other learned apparatus; her snuff-box stood

at her right hand: at her left hand lay her handkerchief, sufficiently

used, and a convenience to spit in appeared on one side of her chair.

She being in a reverie when we entered, the maid did not think proper

to disturb her; so that we waited some minutes unobserved, during which

time she bit the quill several times, altered her position, made many

wry faces, and, at length, with an air of triumph, repeated aloud:

“Nor dare th’immortal gods my rage oppose!”

Having committed her success to paper, she turned towards the door, and

perceiving us, cried, “What’s the matter?” “Here’s the young man,”

replied my conductress, “whom Mrs. Sagely recommended as a footman to

your ladyship.” On this information she stared in my face for a

considerable time, and then asked my name, which I thought proper to

conceal under that of John Brown. After having surveyed me with a

curious eye, she broke out into, “O! ay, thou wast shipwrecked, I

remember. Whether didst thou come on shore on the back of a whale or a

dolphin?” To this I answered, I had swam ashore without any assistance.

Then she demanded to know if I had ever been at the Hellespont, and

swam from Sestos to Abydos. I replied in the negative; upon which she

bade the maid order a suit of new livery for me, and instruct me in the

articles of my duty: so she spit in her snuff-box, and wiped her nose

with her cap, which lay on the table, instead of a handkerchief.

We returned to the kitchen, where I was regaled by the maids, who

seemed to vie with each other in expressing their regard for me; and

from them I understood, that my business consisted in cleaning knives

and forks, laying the cloth, waiting at table, carrying messages, and

attending my lady when she went abroad. There was a very good suit of

livery in the house, which had belonged to my predecessor deceased, and

it fitted me exactly; so that there was no occasion for employing a

tailor on my account. I had not been long equipped in this manner, when

my lady’s bell rung; upon which, I ran up stairs, and found her

stalking about the room in her shift and under petticoat only; I would

immediately have retired as became me, but she bade me come in, and air

a clean shift for her; which operation I having performed with some

backwardness, she put it on before me without any ceremony, and I

verily believe 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 inhuman

treatment I met with from the country people and parson; the

description of which, I perceived, drew tears from the charming

creature’s eyes. When I had finished my recital, my mistress, said, “Ma

foi! le garçon est bien fait!” To which opinion Narcissa assented, with

a compliment to my understanding, in the same language, that flattered

my vanity extremely.

The conversation, among other subjects, turned upon the young squire,

whom my lady inquired after under the title of the Savage; and was

informed by her niece that he was still in bed, repairing the fatigue

of last night’s debauch, and recruiting strength and spirits to undergo

a fox chase to-morrow morning, in company with Sir Timothy Thicket,

Squire Bumper, and a great many other gentlemen of the same stamp, whom

he had invited on that occasion! so that by daybreak the whole house

would be in an uproar. This was a very disagreeable piece of news to

the virtuoso, who protested she would stuff her ears with cotton when

she went to bed, and take a dose of opium to make her sleep the more

sound, that she might not be disturbed and distracted by the clamour of

the brutes.

When their dinner was over, I and my fellow servants sat down to ours

in the kitchen, where I understood that Sir Timothy Thicket was a

wealthy knight in the neighbourhood, between whom and Narcissa a match

had been projected by her brother, who promised at the same time to

espouse Sir Timothy’s sister; by which means, as their fortunes were

pretty equal, the young ladies would be provided for, and their

brothers be never the poorer; but that the ladies did not concur in the

scheme, each of them entertaining a hearty contempt for the person

allotted to her for a husband by this agreement. This information begat

in me a mortal aversion to Sir Timothy, whom I looked upon as my rival,

and cursed in my heart for his presumption.

Next morning, by daybreak, being awakened by the noise of the hunters

and hounds, I rose to view the cavalcade, and had a sight of my

competitor, whose accomplishments (the estate excluded) did not seem

brilliant enough to give me much uneasiness with respect to Narcissa,

who, I flattered myself, was not to be won by such qualifications as he

was master of, either as to person or mind. My mistress,

notwithstanding her precaution, was so much disturbed by her nephew’s

company, that she did not rise till five o’clock in the afternoon; so

that I had an opportunity of examining her study at leisure, to which

examination I was strongly prompted by my curiosity. Here I found a

thousand scraps of her own poetry, consisting of three, four, ten,

twelve, and twenty lines, on an infinity of subjects, which, as whim

inspired, she had begun, without constancy or capacity to bring to any

degree of composition: but, what was very extraordinary in a female

poet, there was not the least mention made of love in any of her

performances. I counted fragments of five tragedies, the titles of

which were “The Stern Philosopher,” “The Double,” “The Sacrilegious

Traitor,” “The Fall of Lucifer,” and “The Last Day.” From whence I

gathered, that her disposition was gloomy, and her imagination

delighted with objects of horror. Her library was composed of the best

English historians, poets, and philosophers; of all the French critics

and poets, and of a few books in Italian, chiefly poetry, at the head

of which were Tasso and Ariosto, pretty much used. Besides these,

translations of the classics into French, but not one book in Greek or

Latin; a circumstance that discovered her ignorance in these languages.

After having taken a full view of this collection, I retired, and at

the usual time was preparing to lay the cloth, when I was told by the

maid that her mistress was still in bed, and had been so affected with

the notes of the hounds in the morning, that she actually believed

herself a hare beset by the hunters, and begged a few greens to munch

for breakfast. When I expressed my surprise in this unaccountable

imagination she gave me to understand that her lady was very much

subject to whims of this nature; sometimes fancying herself an animal,

sometimes a piece of furniture, during which conceited transformations

it was very dangerous to come near her, especially when she represented

a beast; for that lately, in the character of a cat, she had flown at

her, and scratched her face in a terrible manner: that some months ago,

she prophesied the general conflagration was at hand, and nothing would

be able to quench it but her water, which therefore she kept so long,

that her life was in danger, and she must needs have died of the

retention, had they not found an expedient to make her evacuate, by

kindling a bonfire under her chamber window and persuading her that the

house was in flames: upon which, with great deliberation, she bade them

bring all the tubs and vessels they could find to be filled for the

preservation of the house, into one of which she immediately discharged

the cause of her distemper. I was also informed that nothing

contributed so much to the recovery of her reason as music, which was

always administered on those occasions by Narcissa, who played

perfectly well on the harpsichord, and to whom she (the maid) was just

then going to intimate her aunt’s disorder.

She was no sooner gone than I was summoned by the bell to my lady’s

chamber, where I found her sitting squat on her hands on the floor, in

the manner of puss when she listens to the outcries of her pursuers.

When I appeared, she started up with an alarmed look, and sprang to the

other side of the room to avoid me, whom, without doubt, she mistook

for a beagle thirsting after her life. Perceiving her extreme

confusion, I retired, and on the staircase met the adorable Narcissa

coming up, to whom I imparted the situation of my mistress; she said

not a word, but smiling with unspeakable grace, went into her aunt’s

apartment, and in a little time my ears were ravished with the efforts

of her skill. She accompanied the instrument with a voice so sweet and

melodious, that I did not wonder at the surprising change it produced

on the spirits of my mistress which composed to peace and sober

reflection.

About seven o’clock, the hunters arrived with the skins of two foxes

and one badger, carried before them as trophies of their success; and

when they were about to sit down to dinner (or supper) Sir Timothy

Thicket desired that Narcissa would honour the table with her presence;

but this request, notwithstanding her brother’s threats and entreaties,

she refused, on pretence of attending her aunt, who was indisposed; so

I enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing my rival mortified: but this

disappointment made no great impression on him, who consoled himself

with the bottle, of which the whole company became so enamoured that,

after a most horrid uproar of laughing, singing, swearing, and

fighting, they were all carried to bed in a state of utter oblivion. My

duty being altogether detached from the squire and his family, I led a

pretty easy and comfortable life, drinking daily intoxicating draughts

of love from the charms of Narcissa, which brightened on my

contemplation every day more and more. Inglorious as my station was, I

became blind to my own unworthiness, and even conceived hopes of one

day enjoying this amiable creature, whose, affability greatly

encouraged these presumptuous thoughts.