ummoned by high order from his wife, but pretends he has
had enough of London. I was a little melancholy to part with him; he
goes to Bristol, where they are to be with his merchant brother, and now
thinks of staying till May; so she must be brought to bed in England. He
was so easy and manageable, that I almost repent I suffered him to see
me so seldom. But he is gone, and will save Patrick some lies in a week:
Patrick is grown admirable at it, and will make his fortune. How now,
sirrah, must I write in a morning to your impudence?

Stay till night,
And then I'll write,
In black and white,
By candlelight,
Of wax so bright,
It helps the sight--
A bite, a bite!

Marry come up, Mistress Boldface.--At night. Dr. Raymond came back, and
goes to-morrow. I did not come home till eleven, and found him here to
take leave of me. I went to the Court of Requests, thinking to find Mr.
Harley and dine with him, and refused Henley, and everybody, and at last
knew not where to go, and met Jemmy Leigh by chance, and he was just in
the same way, so I dined at his lodgings on a beef-steak, and drank
your health; then left him and went to the tavern with Ben Tooke and
Portlack, the Duke of Ormond's secretary, drinking nasty white wine till
eleven. I am sick, and ashamed of it, etc.

21. I met that beast Ferris, Lord Berkeley's(54) steward formerly; I
walked with him a turn in the Park, and that scoundrel dog is as happy
as an emperor, has married a wife with a considerable estate in land and
houses about this town, and lives at his ease at Hammersmith. See your
confounded sect!(55) Well; I had the same luck to-day with Mr. Harley;
'twas a lovely day, and went by water into the City, and dined with
Stratford at a merchant's house, and walked home with as great a dunce
as Ferris, I mean honest Colonel Caulfeild,(56) and came home by eight,
and now am in bed, and going to sleep for a wager, and will send this
letter on Saturday, and so; but first I will wish you a merry Christmas
and a happy New Year, and pray God we may never keep them asunder again.

22. Morning. I am going now to Mr. Harley's levee on purpose to vex him;
I will say I had no other way of seeing him, etc. Patrick says it is a
dark morning, and that the Duke of Argyle(57) is to be knighted to-day;
the booby means installed at Windsor. But I must rise, for this is a
shaving-day, and Patrick says there is a good fire; I wish MD were by