My Reception by that Lady--I become enamoured of Narcissa--recount the particulars of my last misfortune--acquire the good opinion of my Mistress--an Account of the young Squire--I am made acquainted with more particulars of Narcissa's Situation--conceive a mortal hatred against Sir Timothy--examine my Lady's library and performances--her extravagant behaviour Fraught with these useful instructions, I repaired to the place of her habitation, and was introduced by the waiting-woman to the presence of my lady, who had not before seen me.

She sat in her study, with one foot on the ground, and the other upon a high stool at some distance from her seat; her sandy locks hung down, in a disorder I cannot call beautiful, from her head, which was deprived of its coif, for the benefit of scratching with one hand, while she held the stump of a pen in the other.

Her forehead was high and wrinkled; her eyes were large, gray, and prominent; her nose was long, and aquiline: her mouth of vast capacity, her visage meagre and freckled, and her chin peaked like a shoemaker's paring knife; her upper lip contained a large quantity of plain Spanish, which, by continual falling, had embroidered her neck, that was not naturally very white, and the breast of her gown, that flowed loose about her with a negligence that was truly poetic, discovering linen that was very fine, and, to all appearance, never washed but in Castalian streams.

Around her lay heaps of books, globes, quadrants, telescopes, and other learned apparatus; her snuff-box stood at her right hand: at her left hand lay her handkerchief, sufficiently used, and a convenience to spit in appeared on one side of her chair.
She being in a reverie when we entered, the maid did not think proper to disturb her; so that we waited some minutes unobserved, during which time she bit the quill several times, altered her position, made many wry faces, and, at length, with an air of triumph, repeated aloud: "Nor dare th'immortal gods my rage oppose!" Having committed her success to paper, she turned towards the door, and perceiving us, cried, "What's the matter ?" "Here's the young man," replied my conductress, "whom Mrs.Sagely recommended as a footman to your ladyship." On this information she stared in my face for a considerable time, and then asked my name, which I thought proper to conceal under that of John Brown.

After having surveyed me with a curious eye, she broke out into, "O! ay, thou wast shipwrecked, I remember.