st tell you that Captain Thomas, or my Lord Viscount afterwards,
was never at a loss for a story, and could cajole a woman or a dun with
a volubility, and an air of simplicity at the same time, of which many
a creditor of his has been the dupe. His tales used to gather
verisimilitude as he went on with them. He strung together fact after
fact with a wonderful rapidity and coherence. It required, saving your
presence, a very long habit of acquaintance with your father to know
when his lordship was l----,--telling the truth or no.

"He told me with rueful remorse when he was ill--for the fear of death
set him instantly repenting, and with shrieks of laughter when he was
well, his lordship having a very great sense of humor--how in a half an
hour's time, and before a bottle was drunk, he had completely succeeded
in biting poor Pastoureau. The seduction he owned to: that he could not
help: he was quite ready with tears at a moment's warning, and shed them
profusely to melt his credulous listener. He wept for your mother even
more than Pastoureau did, who cried very heartily, poor fellow, as my
lord informed me; he swore upon his honor that he had twice sent money
to Brussels, and mentioned the name of the merchant with whom it was
lying for poor Gertrude's use. He did not even know whether she had
a child or no, or whether she was alive or dead; but got these facts
easily out of honest Pastoureau's answers to him. When he heard that
she was in a convent, he said he hoped to end his days in one himself,
should he survive his wife, whom he hated, and had been forced by a
cruel father to marry; and when he was told that Gertrude's son was
alive, and actually in London, 'I started,' says he; 'for then, damme,
my wife was expecting to lie in, and I thought should this old Put, my
father-in-law, run rusty, here would be a good chance to frighten him.'

"He expressed the deepest gratitude to the Pastoureau family for the
care of the infant: you were now near six years old; and on Pastoureau
bluntly telling him, when he proposed to go that instant and see the
darling child, that they never wished to see his ill-omened face again
within their doors; that he might have the boy, though they should all
be very sorry to lose him; and that they would take his money, they
being poor, if he gave it; or bring him up, by God's help, as they had
hitherto done, without: he acquiesced in this at once, with a sigh,
said, 'Well, 'twas better that