Mr Francis, on the evening preceding the day on which he purposed leaving Morton Park, passing under the open window of my chamber, in which I was sitting with a book to enjoy the refreshing breeze, invited me to come down, and accompany him in a ramble. I immediately complied with his request, and joined him in a few minutes, with a countenance clouded with regret at the idea of his quitting us. 'You are going,' said I, as I gave him my hand (which he passed under his arm), 'and I lose my friend and counsellor.' 'Your concern is obliging; but you are capable of standing alone, and your mind, by so doing, will acquire strength.' 'I feel as if this would not be the case: the world appears to me a thorny and pathless wilderness; I step with caution, and look around me with dread.--That I require protection and assistance is, I confess, a proof of weakness, but it is nevertheless true.' 'Mr Montague,' replied he, with some degree of archness in his tone and manner, 'is a gallant knight, a pattern of chivalry, and appears to be particularly calculated for the defender of distressed damsels!' 'I have no inclination to trust myself to the guidance of one, who seems himself entangled in an inextricable maze of error, and whose versatile character affords little basis for confidence.' 'Tell me what it is you fear;--are your apprehensions founded in reason?' 'Recollect my youth, my sex, and my precarious situation.' 'I thought you contemned the plea of _sex_, as a sanction for weakness!' 'Though I disallow it as a natural, I admit it as an artificial, plea.' 'Explain yourself.' 'The character, you tell me, is modified by circumstances: the customs of society, then, have enslaved, enervated, and degraded woman.' 'I understand you: there is truth in your remark, though you have given it undue force.'