ry
at the tavern, and calling toasts (as the fashion of that day was) over
their wine, Esmond thought of persons--of two fair women, whom he had
been used to adore almost, and emptied his glass with a sigh.

By this time the elder Viscountess had grown tired again of the younger,
and whenever she spoke of my lord's widow, 'twas in terms by no means
complimentary towards that poor lady: the younger woman not needing her
protection any longer, the elder abused her. Most of the family quarrels
that I have seen in life (saving always those arising from money
disputes, when a division of twopence halfpenny will often drive the
dearest relatives into war and estrangement,) spring out of jealousy
and envy. Jack and Tom, born of the same family and to the same fortune,
live very cordially together, not until Jack is ruined when Tom deserts
him, but until Tom makes a sudden rise in prosperity, which Jack can't
forgive. Ten times to one 'tis the unprosperous man that is angry, not
the other who is in fault. 'Tis Mrs. Jack, who can only afford a chair,
that sickens at Mrs. Tom's new coach-and-sick, cries out against her
sister's airs, and sets her husband against his brother. 'Tis Jack who
sees his brother shaking hands with a lord (with whom Jack would like
to exchange snuff-boxes himself), that goes home and tells his wife how
poor Tom is spoiled, he fears, and no better than a sneak, parasite, and
beggar on horse back. I remember how furious the coffee-house wits were
with Dick Steele when he set up his coach and fine house in Bloomsbury:
they began to forgive him when the bailiffs were after him, and abused
Mr. Addison for selling Dick's country-house. And yet Dick in the
sponging-house, or Dick in the Park, with his four mares and plated
harness, was exactly the same gentle, kindly, improvident, jovial Dick
Steele: and yet Mr. Addison was perfectly right in getting the money
which was his, and not giving up the amount of his just claim, to
be spent by Dick upon champagne and fiddlers, laced clothes, fine
furniture, and parasites, Jew and Christian, male and female, who clung
to him. As, according to the famous maxim of Monsieur de Rochefoucault,
"in our friends' misfortunes there's something secretly pleasant to us;"
so, on the other hand, their good fortune is disagreeable. If 'tis hard
for a man to bear his own good luck, 'tis harder still for his friends
to bear it for him and but few of them ordinarily can stand that trial