t chapter of

lonel Bath's lodging with much more peaceable intention than that gentleman had

.-Thither they came, and there James acquainted Booth with all that which the reader kno

tion of the wickedness of Miss Matthews; upon which James took him up, saying, he o

colonel," cried Booth, "and s

the description, so we shall omit it all; and concluded with saying, "Curse me if I don't think her the finest creature in the universe. I would give half my estate, Booth,

ar in your way of thinking. Beauty is indeed the object of liking, great qualities of admiration,

it in that light, is it not of all things the most insipid? all oil! all sugar! zounds! it is

cloying in it. I have lived almost alone with my wife near three years together, was never tired with her company

it would make me sick to death in the twentieth part of that time. If I was so condemned, let me see, what would I wish the woman to be? I think no one virtue would be sufficient. With the spirit of a tigress I would have her be a prude, a scold, a scho

end," cries Booth, "to

lready, if I can help i

reconciled to h

n," answered the colonel; "I

d," said Booth, "unl

your age who would not return it. But for my part, I promise you, I like her beyond all other women; and, whilst that is the case, my boy, if her mind was as full of iniquity as Pandora's box was of diseases, I'd hug her close in my arms, and only take as mu

n which James shook him by the hand, and heartily wished him joy, crying, "I do assure you,

was but a new acquaintance, and that

u could have no stronger recommendation. The peer loves the ladies, I believe, as well as ever Mark Antony did; and it is not

es Booth. "Is tha

eside their money. Jusque a la Bourse is sometimes the boundary of love as well as friendship. And, indeed, I never knew any

oth, "but I don't see what instance

to market? I can assure you, my friend, that is a secret I would not i

o believe there are such villains in the world; but there is none of them whom I should detest half so much as myself, if my own mind had ever suggested to me a hint of that kind. I have tas

"And what you say now well justifies my opinion; for I do agree with you th

turned Booth. "What! to

is such a wret

any such matter to you. Nor can I imagine how you yourself could conceive such a thought. The goods I meant were no o

was satisfied with regard to the colonel's suspicions, yet some chimeras now arose in his brain which gave him no very agreeable sensations. What these were, the sagacious reader

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