Page:The perverse widow by Sir Richard Steele and The Widow by Washington Irving (1909).djvu/39

 THE WIDOW and when she was first in love. She maintains that there are no novels written nowadays equal to "Pamela" and "Sir Charles Grandison"; and she places the "Castle of Otranto" at the head of all romances.

She does a vast deal of good in her neighbourhood, and is imposed upon by every beggar in the county. She is the benefactress of a village adjoining to her estate, and takes a special interest in all its love affairs. She knows of every courtship that is going on; every love-lorn damsel is sure to find a patient listener and a sage adviser in her ladyship. She takes great pains to reconcile all love quarrels, and should any faithless swain persist in his inconstancy, he is sure to draw on himself the good lady's violent indignation.

I have learned these particulars partly from Frank Bracebridge and partly from Master Simon. I am now able to account for the assiduous attention of the latter to her ladyship. Her house is one of his favourite resorts, 29