about six to one
To Miss Rivers , Clarges Street . Silleri , Sept. 29 , 10 o'clock . O to be sure ! we are vastly to be pitied : no beaux at all with the general ; only about six to one ; a very pretty proportion , and what I hope always to see . We , the ladies I mean , drink chocolate with the general to-morrow , and he gives us a ball on Thursday ; you would not know Quebec again ; nothing but smiling faces now ; all so gay as never was , the sweetest country in the world ; never expect to see me in England again ; one is really somebody here : I have been asked to dance by only twenty-seven . On the subject of dancing , I am , as it were , a little embarrassed : you will please to observe that , in the time of scarcity , when all the men were at Montreal , I suffered a foolish little captain to sigh and say civil things to me , _ pour passer le tems _ , and the creature takes the airs of a lover , to which he has not the least pretensions , and chuses to be angry that I wo n't dance with him on Thursday , and I positively wo n't . It is really pretty enough that every absurd animal , who takes upon him to make love to one , is to fancy himself entitled to a return : I have no patience with the men 's ridiculousness : have you , Lucy ?