It is impossible to give a notion of this style otherwise than by examples. One night, when she had sat writing letters till it was time to be dressed, _Molly_, said she, _the Ladies are all to be at Court to-night in white aprons_. When she means that I should send to order the chair, she says, _I think the streets are clean, I may venture to walk_. When she would have something put into its place, she bids me _lay it on the floor_. If she would have me snuff the candles, she asks _whether I think her eyes are like a cat's_? If she thinks her chocolate delayed, she talks of _the benefit of abstinence_. If any needle-work is forgotten, she supposes _that I have heard of the lady who died by pricking her finger_. She always imagines that I can recall every thing past from a single word. If she wants her head from the milliner, she only says, _Molly, you know Mrs. Tape_. If she would have the mantua-maker sent for, she remarks _that Mr. Taffety, the mercer, was here last week_. She ordered, a fortnight ago, that the first time she was abroad all day I should choose her a new set of coffee-cups at the china-shop: of this she reminded me yesterday, as she was going down stairs, by saying, _You can't find your way now to Pall-mall_. All this would never vex me, if, by increasing my trouble, she spared her own; but, dear Mr. Idler, is it not as easy to say _coffee-cups_, as _Pall-mall_? and to tell me in plain words what I am to do, and when it is to be done, as to torment her own head with the labour of finding hints, and mine with that of understanding them? When first I came to this lady, I had nothing like the learning that I have now; for she has many books, and I have much time to read; so that of late I seldom have missed her meaning: but when she first took me I was an ignorant girl; and she, who, as is very common, confounded want of knowledge with want of understanding, began once to despair of bringing me to any thing, because, when I came into her chamber at the call of her bell, she asked me, _Whether we lived in Zembla_; and I did not guess the meaning of her inquiry, but modestly answered, that _I could not tell_. She had happened to ring once when I did not hear her, and meant to put me in mind of that country where sounds are said to be congealed by the frost. Another time, as I was dressing her head, she began to talk on a sudden of _Medusa_, and _snakes_, and _men turned into stone, and maids that, if they were not watched, would let their mistresses be Gorgons_. I looked round me half frightened, and quite bewildered; till at last, finding that her literature was thrown away upon me, she bid me with great vehemence, reach the curling-irons.