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 to all those arbitrary tastes of pleasure, which are by some stil'd the refinements, and by others, the depravations of it; between whom it was not the business of a simple girl, who was to profit by pleasing, to decide, but to conform.

Whilst I was edifying by these whole some lessons, tea was brought in, and the young ladies, returning, join'd company with us.

After a great deal of mix'd chat, frolick, and humour, one of them, observing that there would be a good deal of time on hand before the assembly-hour, proposed, that each girl should entertain the company with that critical period of her personal history, in which she first exchanged the maiden state for womanhood. The proposal was approv'd, with one only restriction of Mrs. Cole, that she, on the account of her age, and I on the account of my titular maidenhood, should be excused, at least till I had undergone the forms of the house. Rh