st proposal; and, when he went away, said he
should expect him at the appointed place and time, if it did not rain.

"His antagonist gave me an account of the conversation, when I assured
him the whole business would end in smoke. Accordingly, my lord sent him
a letter on Monday, desiring that the assignation might be deferred till
Thursday, that he might have time to settle his affairs, and pay S--
a hundred pounds, which he had formerly borrowed of him. When Thursday
came, he was favoured with another epistle, importing that the
challenger had changed his mind, and would seek satisfaction at law.
Thus ended that heroic exploit, which his lordship now boasted of with
such arrogant misrepresentation.

"While he thus regaled me with these interesting particulars, I was
contriving a scheme to frustrate the discovery he had made; so that I
did not contradict his assertions, but told him, that, if he would go
down-stairs, I would rise and come to breakfast. He consented to this
proposal with great cheerfulness; and I own I was not a little surprised
to find him, at this first interview, in as good a humour as if nothing
had happened to interrupt the felicity of our matrimonial union.

"It cost me some invention to conceal my condition from his notice,
being now within a week of the expected crisis. But I knew I had to
do with a man of no great penetration, and succeeded in my attempt
accordingly. We breakfasted with great harmony, and I invited him to
dinner, after having prevailed upon him to send away his myrmidons,
whom, nevertheless, he ordered to return at eleven o'clock at night. We
conversed together with great gaiety and mirth. When I rallied him for
visiting me in such a dishabille, he stood on tiptoe to view himself in
the glass; and, owning I was in the right, said he would go and dress
himself before dinner. He accordingly went away, charging my maid to
give him entrance at his return; and he was no sooner gone than I wrote
to Mr. S--, giving him an account of what had happened. Then, without
having determined on any certain plan, I huddled on my clothes, muffled
myself up, and calling a chair, went to the next tavern, where I
stayed no longer than was sufficient to change my vehicle; and, to the
astonishment of the drawers, who could not conceive the meaning of
my perturbation, proceeded to a shop in the neighbourhood, where I
dismissed my second chair, and procured a hackney-coach, in which I
repaired to the