, and who is already in actual possession
of all the estates of the house of Norfolk? I confess that he is a
clown, but what other lady in all England would not have dispensed with
his stupidity and his disagreeable person, to be the first duchess in the
kingdom, with twenty-five thousand a year?

"To conclude, Lord Falmouth has told me himself, that he has always
looked upon her as the only acquisition wanting to complete his
happiness: but, that even at the height of the splendour of his fortune,
he never had had the assurance to open his sentiments to her; that he
either felt in himself too much weakness, or too much pride, to be
satisfied with obtaining her solely by the persuasion of her relations;
and that, though the first refusals of the fair on such occasions are not
much minded, he knew with what an air she had received the addresses of
those whose persons she did not like. After this, Monsieur le Chevalier,
consider what method you intend to pursue: for, if you are in love, the
passion will still increase, and the greater the attachment, the less
capable will you be of making those serious reflections that are now in
your power."

"My poor philosopher," answered the Chevalier de Grammont, "you
understand Latin very well, you can make good verses, you understand the
course, and are acquainted with the nature of the stars in the firmament;
but, as for the luminaries of the terrestrial globe, you are utterly
unacquainted with them: you have told me nothing about Miss Hamilton, but
what the king told me three days ago. That she has refused the savages
you have mentioned is all in her favour if she had admitted their
addresses, I would have had nothing to say to her, though I love her
to distraction. Attend now to what I am going to say: I am resolved
to marry her, and I will have my tutor Saint Evremond himself to be the
first man to commend me for it. As for an establishment, I shall make my
peace with the king, and will solicit him to make her one of the ladies
of the bed-chamber to the queen: this he will grant me. Toulongeon will
die, without my assistance.

[Count de Toulongeon was elder brother to Count Grammont, who, by
his death, in 1679, became, according to St. Evremond, on that
event, one of the richest noblemen at court.--See St. Evremond's
Works. vol. ii., p. 327.]

"Notwithstanding all his care; Miss Hamilton will have Semeat,--[A country
seat belonging to the family of the Grammonts