Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/141

Rh but when, in performing such an act of civility, you receive a squeeze of the hand, a thrust of the elbow, a leer, or a card of address,—learn that no good is intended: it is nothing more or less, than an attack on your purse; sinijily that, and not addressed to your person, this being a matter perfectly indifferent to her (whatever you yourself may think of its beauty.)—Her flashman, in her estimation, is ten times handsomer, certainly more acceptable. Where is the difference, then, of an attack on your purse, whether it be made by a man or a woman? through the medium of your passions, or of another's address and cunning?

We will, for a moment, suppose an unthinking young man led away by his passions, to give ear to one of those Syrens, and that she is of a decent stamp,—say a second rater, or a third, such as would not disgust at the first view:—What has he to expect upon accompanying her along? Her demand, at first but small, probably a few shillings, is enhanced by inuendo; as, how handsomely a gentleman (something like yourself) behaved last week, in a present of a few pounds. If you do not take this hint, she bothers you in the house of ill-fame, to which you may go; manages that you shall be charged extravagantly