I obey'd with a heart full of affliction, at the
comparison it made between those delicious tete-a-tetes with
my ever dear youth, and this forc'd situation, this new
awkward scene, impos'd and obtruded on me by cruel necessity.
At supper, after a great many arguments used to comfort
and reconcile me to my fate, he told me that his name was
H . . . , brother to the Earl of L . . . and that having, by
the suggestions of my landlady, been led to see me, he had
found me perfectly to his taste and given her a commission
to procure me at any rate, and that he had at length suc-
ceeded, as much to his satisfaction as he passionately
wished it might be to mine; adding, withal, some flattering
assurances that I should have no cause to repent my know-
ledge of him.
I had now got down at most half a partridge, and three
or four glasses of wine, which he compelled me to drink by
way of restoring nature; but whether there was anything ex-
traordinary put into the wine, or whether there wanted no
more to revive the natural warmth of my constitution and
give fire to the old train, I began no longer to look with
that constraint, not to say disgust, on Mr. H . . ., which
I had hitherto done; but, withal, there was not the least
grain of love mix'd with this softening of my sentiments:
any other man would have been just the same to me as Mr.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109