{2} to a
richly embroidered full-dress court suit, under the care of spies, who
are upon the look-out that they don't brush off with the stock. Others,
again, are boarded and lodged by the owners of houses of ill-fame, kept
as dirty and as ragged as beggars all day, but who,

"Dress'd out at night, cut a figure."

It however not unfrequently happens to those unhappy Girls who have not
been successful in their pursuits, and do not bring home with them the
wages of their prostitution, that they are sent to bed without supper,
and sometimes get a good beating into the bargain; besides which, the
Mistress of the house takes care to search them immediately after they
are left by their gallants, by which means they are deprived of every
shilling."

Approaching the City, they espied a crowd of persons assembled together
round the door of Money the perfumer. Upon inquiring, a species of
depreciation was exposed, which had not yet come under their view.

It appeared that a note, purporting to come from a gentleman at the
Tavistock Hotel, desiring Mr. Money to wait on him to take measure of
his cranium for a fashionable peruke, had drawn him from home, and that
during his absence, a lad, in breathless haste, as if dispatched by the
principal, entered the shop, stating that Sir. Money wanted a wig which
was in the window, with some combs and hair-brushes, for the Gentleman's
inspection, and also a pot of his Circassian cream. The bait took, the
articles

1 Coves of cases--Keepers of houses of ill fame.

2 Camesa--A shirt or shift.

~371~~ were packed up, and the wily cheat had made good his retreat
before the return of the coiffeur, who was not pleased with being
seduced from his home by a hoaxing letter, and less satisfied to find
that his property was diminished in his absence by the successful
artifices of a designing villain. This tale having got wind in the
neighbourhood, persons were flocking round him to advise as to the mode
of pursuit, and many were entertaining each other by relations of a
similar nature; but our heroes having their friend Merrywell in view (or
rather his interest) made the best of their way to the Lock-up-house.

CHAPTER XXIII

"The world its trite opinion holds of those
That in a world apart these bars enclose;
And thus methinks some sage, whose wisdom frames
Old saws anew, complacently exclaims,
Debt is like death--it levels