acquaintance among people of fashion. Nor was this an undertaking
attended with great difficulty, for all persons whatever capable of
maintaining a certain appearance, will always find admission into
what is called the best company, and be rated in point of character
according to their own valuation, without subjecting their pretensions
to the smallest doubt or examination. In all her visits and parties
she seized every opportunity of declaring her present condition,
observing that she was forbid by her physicians to taste such a
pickle, and that such a dish was poison to a woman in her way; nay,
where she was on a footing of familiarity, she affected to make
wry faces, and complained that the young rogue began to be very
unruly, writhing herself into divers contortions, as if she had
been grievously incommoded by the mettle of this future Trunnion.
The husband himself did not behave with all the moderation that
might have been expected. At the club he frequently mentioned this
circumstance of his own vigour as a pretty successful feat to be
performed by an old fellow of fifty-five, and confirmed the opinion
of his strength by redoubled squeezes of the landlord's hand, which
never failed of extorting a satisfactory certificate of his might.
When his companions drank to the Hans en kelder, or Jack in the low
cellar, he could not help displaying an extraordinary complacence
of countenance, and signified his intention of sending the young
dog to sea as soon as he should be able to carry a cartridge, in
hopes of seeing him an officer before his own death.

This hope helped to console him under the extraordinary expense to
which he was exposed by the profusion of his wife, especially when
he considered that his compliance with her prodigality would be
limited to the expiration of the nine months, of which the best part
was by this time elapsed: yet, in spite of all this philosophical