A young man offers his hand to help a young woman cross a bridge over a brook, but she turns back as the bridge is too narrow. Engraving by W. Angus, 1793, after T. Stothard.

The young man is taking the lady (called Anthea) on an excursion by coach to a country house, but she complains and objects to everything. She sees a bridge and asks the coach-driver to stop so that she can cross it on foot, but then refuses to do so. "At last we got into the smooth road, and began to think our difficulties at an end; when, on a sudden, Anthea saw a brook before us, which she could not venture to pass. We were, therefore, obliged to alight, that we might walk over the bridge; but when we came to it, we found it so narrow, that Anthea durst not set her foot upon it, and was content, after long consultation, to call the coach back; and with innumerable precautions, terrors, and lamentations, crossed the brook."The young man holds an umbrella as a sign of his preparedness