“ ’Tis pretty well,” said Mangogul within himself; but still he urged afresh.
“Lud, how teasing you are,” resumed the Toy: “As if one had nothing better to do than to prate. Come then, since it must be so, let us prate on: perhaps when I have told all, I shall be permitted to do something else.
“My Mistress Fannia,” continued the Toy, “through an inconceivable spirit of retirement, quitted the court, to shut her self up in her house at Banza. It was then the beginning of autumn, and everybody was out of town. And if you ask me what she did there; Faith, I can’t tell. But Fannia never did but one thing; and if she had been employ’d that way, I should have known it. Probably she was out of work: true, I now recollect, we spent a day and a half in perfect idleness, which threw us into a cruel fit of the vapors.
“I was heartsick of this sort of life, when Amisadar was so good to relieve us from it. ‘Ah! you are there, my poor Amisadar, indeed you give me great pleasure. You come to me very opportunely.’
“ ‘And who knew that you were at Banza?’ replied Amisadar.—‘No body truly; and neither you nor anyone else will ever imagine what brought me hither. Don’t you guess at the cause?’
“ ‘No, really, I cannot comprehend it.’
“ ‘Not at all?’
“ ‘No, not at all.’
“ ‘Well then know, my dear, that I resolved to be converted.’
“ ‘You, to be converted?’
“ ‘Yes, I.’
“ ‘Look on me a little: but you are as charming as ever, and I see nothing in that countenance that bespeaks conversion. This is all pleasantry.’
“ ‘No, faith, I am serious. I am determined to renounce the world. I am tired of it.’
“ ‘This is a whim, that will soon fly off. Let me die, if ever you run into devotion.’
“ ‘I will, I tell you: there is no sincerity in man.’
“ ‘Pray has Mazul fail’d you?’
“ ‘I have not seen him this age.’
“ ‘Then it must be Zumpholo?’
“ ‘Less still, I have ceased seeing him, I can’t tell how, without thinking about it.’
“ ‘Ah! I have it, ’tis young Imola?’
“ ‘Good, who can fix such fribbles?’
“ ‘What is it then?’
“ ‘I can’t tell, I am angry with the whole earth?’
“ ‘Ah! Madam, you are in the wrong; for this earth, at which you are angry, might furnish you wherewithal to repair your losses.’
“ ‘Then, Amisadar, you sincerely believe that there are still some good souls, who have escaped from the corruption of the age, and are capable of love?’
“ ‘How, love! Is it possible that you give into those pitiful notions? you expect to be loved, you?’
“ ‘And why not?’
“ ‘But reflect, madam, that a man who loves, pretends to be loved, and alone too. You have too much good sense, to enslave yourself to the jealousies and caprices of a tender and faithful lover. Nothing so fatiguing as these folks. To see but them, to love but them, to dream of none but them, to have no wit, humour, or charms but for them; all this most certainly does not suit you. It would be pleasant to see you stive yourself up in, what is called, the noble passion, and give yourself all the awkward airs of a little female cit.’
“ ‘Well, Amisadar, you seem to be in the right. I verily think it would ill become us to run into fawning love. Let us change then, since it must be so. Besides, I do not see, that those loving women, whom they set us as models, are happier than others.’
“ ‘Who told you so, madam?’
“ ‘No body, but it is easily foreseen.’
“ ‘Trust not to such foresight? A loving woman constitutes her own, and her lover’s happiness: but this part is not suited to all women.’
“ ‘Faith, my dear, it is suited to none: for all, who attempt it, are sufferers. What advantage is there in fixing to one?’
“ ‘A thousand, a woman, who fixes her affections, will preserve her reputation; will be sovereignly esteemed by the man she loves; and you cannot imagine, how much love owes to esteem.’
“ ‘I do not comprehend your meaning, you make a jumble of reputation, love, esteem, and I can’t tell what besides. Would you be understood, that inconstancy must dishonour a woman? How, I take a man, and find he does not answer my expectations: I take another, and am still disappointed: I change him for a third, who does not turn out a jot better: and because I have had the misfortune to make a score of wrong choices, instead of pitying me, you would—’
“ ‘I would, madam, advise a woman who has been deceived in her first choice, not to make a second; for fear of being deceived again, and running from one error into another.’
“ ‘Good God, what strange morality! I fancy, my dear, that you preached me a quite different sort just now. Might one be informed what sort of woman would hit your taste?’
“ ‘Most willingly, madam but ’tis late, and the discourse would run into too great a length.’
“ ‘So much the better: I am alone, and you will be company for me. Thus the affair is settled, is it not? Seat yourself on this couch, and go on: I shall hear you more at ease.’
“Amisadar obey’d, and sat down by Fannia. ‘That mantelet of yours, madam,’ says he, leaning towards her, and uncovering her bosom, ‘wraps you up strangely.’
“ ‘You say right.’
“ ‘Why then do you hide such beautiful things?’ added he, kissing them. ‘Come, ha’ done. Do you know that you are mad? You are become intolerably impudent. Mr. Moralist, resume the conversation which you began.’
“ ‘Well then,’ said Amisadar, ‘I would be glad to find in my mistress a good figure, good sense, good sentiments, and decency above all. I would have her approve my attendance; not deceive me by looks; make me thoroughly sensible, once at least, that I am agreeable to her; and even inform me how I may become still more so; not conceal from me the progress
