If I must have an intrigue, let it be with a woman that shall not shame
me. I would never go into the kitchen, when the parlour door was open.
We are forbidden at Highgate, to kiss the maid when we may kiss the
mistress; why then will gentlemen descend so low, by too much familiarity
with these creatures, to bring themselves into contempt?
I have been at places where the maid has been so dizzied with these idle
compliments that she has mistook one thing for another, and not regarded
her mistress in the least; but put on all the flirting airs imaginable.
This behaviour is nowhere so much complained of as in taverns,
coffeehouses, and places of public resort, where there are handsome bar-
keepers, &c. These creatures being puffed up with the fulsome flattery
of a set of flesh-flies, which are continually buzzing about them, carry
themselves with the utmost insolence imaginable; insomuch, that you must
speak to them with a great deal of deference, or you are sure to be
affronted. Being at a coffeehouse the other day, where one of these
ladies kept the bar, I had bespoke a dish of rice tea; but madam was so
taken up with her sparks, she had quite forgot it. I spake for it again,
and with some temper, but was answered after a most taunting manner, not
without a toss of the head, a contraction of the nostrils, and other
impertinences, too many to enumerate.
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