to breakfast, I alighted, and
helped my mistress out of the coach, as well as her mother who called
for a private room to which they withdrew in order to eat by themselves.
As they retired together, I perceived that Miss had got more twists from
nature than I had before observed for she was bent sideways into the
figure of an S, so that her progression very much resembled that of a
crab. The prude also chose the captain for her messmate, and ordered
breakfast for two only, to be brought into another separate room: while
the lawyer and I, deserted by the rest of the company, were fain to put
up with each other. I was a good deal chagrined at the stately
reserve of Mrs. Snapper, who, I thought, did not use me with all the
complaisance I deserved; and my companion declared that he had been a
traveller for twenty years, and never knew the stage coach rules so much
infringed before. As for the honourable gentlewoman I could not conceive
the meaning of her attachment to the lieutenant; and asked the lawyer
if he knew for which of the soldier's virtues she admired him? The
counsellor facetiously replied, "I suppose the lady knows him to be an
able conveyancer, and wants him to make a settlement in tail." I could
not help laughing at the archness of the barrister, who entertained
me during breakfast with a great deal of wit of the same kind, at the
expense of our fellow travellers; and among other things said, he was
sorry to find the young lady saddled with such incumbrances.

When we had made an end of our repast, and paid our reckoning, we went
into the coach, took our places, and bribed the driver with sixpence to
revenge us on the rest of his fare, by hurrying them away in the midst
of their meal. This task he performed to our satisfaction, after he had
disturbed their enjoyment with his importunate clamour. The mother and
daughter obeyed the summons first, and, coming to the coach door, were
obliged to desire the coachman's assistance to get in, because the
lawyer and I had agreed to show our resentment by our neglect. They were
no sooner seated, than the captain appeared, as much heated as if he had
been pursued a dozen miles by an enemy; and immediately after him came
the lady, not without some marks of disorder. Having helped her up,
he entered himself, growling a few oaths against the coachman for his
impertinent interruption; and the lawyer comforted him by saying, that
if he had suffered a nisi prius through the obst