Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 3).pdf/258

 think I recollect, now, what it is you have been doing. Acting?—That's it. Is it not? Pray what stage did you come out upon first? Did you begin wearing your itinerant buskins in England, or abroad?"

"Where I began, Madam, I have ended; at Mrs. Maple's."

"And pray, have you kept that same face ever since I saw you in Grosvenor Square? or have you put it on again only now, to come back to me? I rather suppose you have made it last the whole time. It would be very expensive, I apprehend, to change it frequently: it can by no means be so costly to keep it only in repair. How do you put on your colours? I have heard of somebody who had learnt the art of enamelling their own skin: is that your method?"

Waiting vainly for an answer, she went on.

"Pray, if I may presume so far, how old are you?—But I beg pardon for so indiscreet a question. I did not reflect