OLIVER aOhI)8MITHrt UFE ANI'» TIMKJ*. H».«* I
1757. very for removed from the usher but tlitit much fninilmrity
JM. subsisted between them. Ho was weak, but good U'mpmul,
and one of Goldsmith's jokeH hntl for it« objtrt to t'«ru him
of a hopeless passion with which a pretty warrant girl in lh«
neighbourhood had inspired him. Thw youthful Phillm
seems to have rather nuddonly quitted wrviou tttul #»i»» buck
to her homo in Yorknhire, leaving behind IUT » nort of bit IF*
promise that she would some day wiul William n l<4trr;
which everybody but William of cnurac km»w wiin wiily IUT
good-natured way of getting rid of importunity: 1«% hetwtwts
having a fixed persuasion tlmt the letttn* w»ul«l roriw, i«vi»ry
morning would watch the postman as ho pitiwt!, fttitl tun-nnui
at last so wretched with diBappointmtmt tbnt lii»ltl«mttlj
good-naturedly devised an attempt to cure tbo«i»
expectations. In a servant-girFa hand ebiborntuly ii
and with such language and spelling m woitld oxnrtly bit «»lf
the longed-for letter out of Yorkshire (" the Etwly wbu t*»l*t
"metho anecdote," interjiosoH the narrator, "KIIW it twfnrr*
<{ it was sent"), GoldHinith prepared wt epiRtlo fr«»«t tlilllfj*
which was to convey to William, in effort, that ulw )mt! f«*r
various IOOHOHH delayed writing, but WIIH now t«> inform htm
that a young man, by trade a glaHH-gritidor,. wait
addresses to her, that she had not given him
encouragement but her relations were strongly fur tlw
match, that she, however, often thought of William, Hint
must conclude by saying that something rotmt now b<» dom«
one way or another, &c. <fcc. Properly Heaieti tine! tlirci'tiHt,
one of the young gentlemen had it in charge? from Clulcliiiittli
to take in the letters on the postman's next viwt, place thm
among them, and hand them all to the footboy; *' thii ynniip
" gentlemen being in the habit of running towards tfw clam-
" whenever the postman made his appearance." Everything