I would be willing to swear that hers is a lovely
character--different from the rest of her sex. She is one by herself--a
peerless creature--a very pearl of womanhood--a being fit for Paradise.
Her face tells me that she is modest, pure, amiable, and refined.
Her manners must be charming, her conversation fresh, sparkling, and
elevating."
"The deuce!" exclaimed Pylades, laughingly, "what good eyes you must
have to make out all that at such a distance! Now I see merely a woman
at a window, who is rather pretty, to tell the honest truth, but not
likely to possess half the perfections you so lavishly bestow upon her.
Take care, or you will be in love with her directly."
"Oh! I'm that now, over head and ears. I must find out forthwith who she
is, and what; but one thing is certain, mine she must be, though it cost
me the half, nay, the whole of my fortune to win her, and there be a
hundred rivals to overcome and slay ere I can carry her off from them in
triumph."
"Come, come, don't get so excited," said Pylades, "you will throw
yourself into a fever; but what has become of the contempt and hatred
for the fair sex you were declaring so vehemently just now? The first
pretty face has routed it all."
"But when I talked like that I did not know that this lovely angel
existed upon earth, and what I said was an odious, outrageous
blasphemy--a monstrous, abominable heresy--for which I pray that Venus,
fair goddess of love and beauty, will graciously forgive me.
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