was a matter of some importance.  The old ladies eyed me with complacency through their spectacles, and the young ladies pronounced me divine.  Everybody received me favorably, excepting the gentleman who had written the Latin verses on the belle.—­Not that he was jealous of my success with the lady, for he had no pretensions to her; but he heard my verses praised wherever he went, and he could not endure a rival with the muse.

I was thus carrying every thing before me.  I was the Adonis of the Cathedral circle; when one evening there was a public ball which was attended likewise by the gentry of the neighborhood.  I took great pains with my toilet on the occasion, and I had never looked better.  I had determined that night to make my grand assault on the heart of the young lady, to batter it with all my forces, and the next morning to demand a surrender in due form.

I entered the ball-room amidst a buzz and flutter, which generally took place among the young ladies on my appearance.  I was in fine spirits; for to tell the truth, I had exhilarated myself by a cheerful glass of wine on the occasion.  I talked, and rattled, and said a thousand silly things, slap-dash, with all the confidence of a man sure of his auditors; and every thing had its effect.

In the midst of my triumph I observed a little knot gathering together in the upper part of the room.  By degrees it increased.  A tittering broke out there; and glances were cast round at me, and then there would be fresh tittering.  Some of the young ladies would hurry away to distant parts of the room, and whisper to their friends; wherever they went there was still this tittering and glancing at me.  I did not know what to make of all this.  I looked at myself from head to foot; and peeped at my back in a glass, to see if any thing was odd about my person; any awkward exposure; any whimsical tag hanging out—­no—­every thing was right.  I was a perfect picture.

I determined that it must be some choice saying of mine, that was handled about in this knot of merry beauties, and I determined to enjoy one of my good things in the rebound.

I stepped gently, therefore, up the room, smiling at every one as I passed, who I must say all smiled and tittered in return.  I approached the group, smirking and perking my chin, like a man who is full of pleasant feeling, and sure of being well received.  The cluster of little belles opened as I advanced.

Heavens and earth! whom should I perceive in the midst of them, but my early and tormenting flame, the everlasting Sacharissa!  She was grown up, it is true, into the full beauty of womanhood, but showed by the provoking merriment of her countenance, that she perfectly recollected me, and the ridiculous flagellations of which she had twice been the cause.