circumstance, at length prevailed upon him to give up his afternoon's
pipe and tankard at Wagstaff's; to sit after dinner by himself, and
take his pint of port--a liquor he detested--and to nod in his chair in
solitary and dismal gentility.

The Miss Lambs might now be seen flaunting along the streets in French
bonnets, with unknown beaux; and talking and laughing so loud that it
distressed the nerves of every good lady within hearing. They even
went so far as to attempt patronage, and actually induced a French
dancing-master to set up in the neighborhood; but the worthy folks of
Little Britain took fire at it, and did so persecute the poor Gaul that
he was fain to pack up fiddle and dancing-pumps, and decamp with such
precipitation that he absolutely forgot to pay for his lodgings.

I had flattered myself, at first, with the idea that all this fiery
indignation on the part of the community was merely the overflowing of
their zeal for good old English manners, and their horror of innovation;
and I applauded the silent contempt they were so vociferous in
expressing, for upstart pride, French fashions, and the Miss Lambs. But
I grieve to say that I soon perceived the infection had taken hold;
and that my neighbors, after condemning, were beginning to follow their
example. I overheard my landlady importuning her husband to let their
daughters have one quarter at French and music, and that they might take
a few lessons in quadrille. I even saw, in the course of a few Sundays,
no less than five French bonnets, precisely like those of the Miss
Lambs, parading about Little Britain.

I still had my hopes that all this folly would gradually die away; that
the Lambs might move out of the neighborhood; might die, or might run
away with attorneys' apprentices; and that quiet and simplicity might be