I looked up, and saw Jessie and Florry on the stage. Jessie, looking towards us, did not appear to recognise me; her face was flushed, and her eyes were brilliant with excitement.
Miss West (as Jacques): 'I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with thee.'
Jessie (as Rosalind): 'They say you are a very melancholy fellow.'
Miss West: 'I am so; I do love it better than laughing.'
Jessie: 'Those that are in extremity of either are abominable fellows, and betray themselves to every modern censure worse than drunkards.'
Miss West: 'Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing.'
Jessie: 'Why, then, 'tis good to be a post!'
The raillery of the tone was perfect, and I was aglow with admiration. I had never in my life heard anything more exquisitely intoned, and this was but a foretaste of what was to follow.
Jessie (to Miss West): 'A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; then, to have seen much, and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.'
Miss West: 'Yes, I have gained my experience.'