(Written when the author was aged 13. Accompanying illustration omitted. )

Dedicated by permission
to Miss Austen

Madam,

You are a Phoenix. You taste is refined, you Sentiments noble, & your Virtues innumerable. Your Person is lovely, your Figure, elegant, & your Form, majestic. Your manners are polished, your Conversation is rational & your appearance singular. If therefore the following Tale will afford one moment's amusement to you, every wish will be gratified of

your most obedient
humble Servant
The Author

***

Chapter 1

Cassandra was the Daughter and the only Daughter of a celebrated Millener in Bond Street. Her father was of noble Birth, being the near relation of the Duchess of ----'s Butler.

Chapter 2

When Cassandra had attainted her 16th year, she was lovely & amiable & chancing to fall in love with an elegant Bonnet, her Mother had just compleated bespoke by the Countess of ----, she placed it on her gentle Head & walked from her Mother's shop to make her Fortune.

Chapter 3

The first person she met, was the Viscount of ---- a young Man, no less celebrated for his Accomplishments & Virtues, than for his Elegance & Beauty. She curtseyed & walked on.

Chapter 4

She then proceeded to a Pastry-cooks, where she devoured six ices, refused to pay for them, knocked down the Pastry-cook & walked away.

Chapter 5

She next ascended a Hackney Coach & ordered it to Hampstead, where she was no sooner arrived than she ordered the Coachman to turn around & drive her back again.

Chapter 6

Being returned to the same spot of the same Street she had sate out from, the Coachman demanded his Pay.

Chapter 7

She searched her pockets over again & again; but every search was unsuccessfull. No money could she find. The man grew peremptory. She placed her bonnet on his head & ran away.

Chapter 8

Thro' many a Street she then proceeded & met in none the least Adventure till on turning a Corner of Bloomsbury Square, she met Maria.

Chapter 9

Cassandra started & Maria seemed surprised; they trembled, blushed, turned pale & passed each other in a mutual silence.

Chapter 10

Cassandra was next accosted by her freind the Widow, who squeezing out her little Head thro' her window, asked her how she did? Cassandra curtseyed & went on.

Chapter 11

A quarter of a mile brought her to her paternal roof in Bond Street, from which she had now been absent nearly 7 hours.

Chapter 12

She entered it & was pressed to her Mother's bosom by that worthy Woman. Cassandra smiled & whispered to herself "This is a day well spent."