made his way to Chalfont, the home of his friends the Penningtons, where
he was soon after engaged as a Latin teacher. Here he seems to have had
his trials and temptations. Gulielma Springette, the daughter of
Pennington's wife, his old playmate, had now grown to be "a fair woman of
marriageable age," and, as he informs us, "very desirable, whether regard
was had to her outward person, which wanted nothing to make her
completely comely, or to the endowments of her mind, which were every way
extraordinary, or to her outward fortune, which was fair." From all
which, we are not surprised to learn that "she was secretly and openly
sought for by many of almost every rank and condition." "To whom,"
continues Thomas, "in their respective turns, (till he at length came for
whom she was reserved,) she carried herself with so much evenness of
temper, such courteous freedom, guarded by the strictest modesty, that as
it gave encouragement or ground of hope to none, so neither did it
administer any matter of offence or just cause of complaint to any."

Beautiful and noble maiden! How the imagination fills up this outline
limning by her friend, and, if truth must be told, admirer! Serene,
courteous, healthful; a ray of tenderest and blandest light, shining
steadily in the sober gloom of that old household! Confirmed Quaker as
she is, shrinking from none of the responsibilities and dangers of her
profession, and therefore liable at any time to the penalties of prison
and whipping-post, under that plain garb and in spite of that "certain
gravity of look and behavior,"--which, as we have seen, on one occasion
awed young Ellwood into silence,--youth, beauty, and refinement assert
their prerogatives; love knows no creed; the gay, and titled, and wealthy
crowd around her, suing in vain for her favor.

"Followed, like the tided moon,
She moves as calmly on,"