fore no longer much reverence for her opinions, but considered her as one whose ignorance and prejudice had hurried me, though without ill intentions, into a state of meanness and ignominy, from which I could not find any possibility of rising to the rank which my ancestors had always held.
I returned, however, to my master, and busied myself among thread, and silks, and laces, but without my former cheerfulness and alacrity. I had now no longer any felicity in contemplating the exact disposition of my powdered curls, the equal plaits of my ruffles, or the glossy blackness of my shoes; nor heard with my former elevation those compliments which ladies sometimes condescended to pay me upon my readiness in twisting a paper, or counting out the change. The term of young man, with which I was sometimes honoured, as I carried a parcel to the door of a coach, tortured my imagination; I grew negligent in my person, and sullen in my tempe, often mistook the demands of the customers, treated their caprices and objections with contempt, and received and dismissed them with surly silence.
My master was afraid lest the shop should suffer by this change of my behaviour; and, therefore, after some expostulations posted me in the warehouse, and preserved me from the danger and reproach of desertion, to which my discontent would certainly have urged me, had I continued any longer behind the counter.
In the sixth year of my servitude my brother died of drunken joy, for having run down a fox that had baffled all the packs in the province. I
