all the marks of which he still explained to be my bashfulness, and not being used to see company.
Tea over, the commode old lady pleaded urgent business, (which indeed was true) to go out, and earnestly desir'd me to entertain her cousin kindly till she came back, both for my own sake and her's; and then, with a "pray, sir, be very good, be very tender of the sweet child," she went out of the room, leaving me staring, with my mouth open, and unprepared, by the suddenness of her departure, to oppose it.
We were now alone; and on that idea a sudden fit of trembling seized me; I was so afraid, without a precise notion of why, and what I had to fear, that I sat on the settee, by the fire-side, motionless, and petrified, without life or spirit, not knowing how to look, or how to stir.
But long I was not suffered to remain in this state of stupefaction: the monster squatted down by me on the settee, and
