Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 2).djvu/114

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Scribble, exerted in a loud tone, that they soon found to be preceptorial; and entering, observed, that his back was towards them, while he accosted a lady of a pleasing countenance, expressing intelligence and sensibility, but tinged with a pensiveness that approached to melancholy. The interesting sadness of her countenance they ascribed, though, as they afterwards learned, unjustly, to some disappointment in love. The gleams of transient mirth, that occasionally shot across her visage, they justly imputed to the absurdities which the speaker was uttering. Approaching to the orator, unobserved, they heard him pouring forth the following words: "Yes, ma'am, as I have before observed, I have read your novel really with a good deal of pleasure, and I must say, there are traits of genius in it; and if you will suspend a future publication, until you see a treatise