Yet have I not? Again I question my heart. 'T is the most I can hope that
the woman hath repaid the child's debt. On this I will be judged.

A keen remembrance begins not much before the age of eight, nor can I
recall a time when I did not love him. My mother's time was took up in
making her court to my Lady Giffard, sister to our benefactor, Sir William
Temple; and Rebecca Dingley's (a kinswoman of the Temples) in making her
court to all; and the child Esther might run as she pleased, chid only
when she was remembered.

And this young man took pity on her. I remember very well Dr Swift's face
in youth. 'Twas extraordinary handsome and commanding, the eyes blue and
piercing, the features strong, and a something that very early
distinguisht him from others, so that great persons coming of errands to
Sir William Temple were not seldom drawn into intercourse with his
secretary.

Mr Swift was not then so prudent as he became later. What need with a
child? He permitted his fancy to range in all he said; and seated by the
lake at Moor Park, with this child at his knee looking up into his face,
he would discourse of things in heaven and earth, forgetting his hearer.
For he who could charm all charmed himself no less, and often hath said to
me laughing:--

"There's no company so good as Jonathan Swift's--and he himself would
choose it before all others!"

Of this I am not certain, for the Dean hath been and is very partial to
the company of the great and famous of either sex.