soon after, they expressed their surprise at his not having been
more urgent in his application, and again recommended the blushless
assiduity of successful merit.

He resolved to make another attempt at the baronet's; fortified with
higher notions of his own dignity, and with less apprehension of
repulse. In his way to Grosvenor Square he began to ruminate on the
folly of mankind, who affixed those ideas of superiority to riches,
which reduced the minds of men, by nature equal with the more
fortunate, to that sort of servility which he felt in his own. By
the time he had reached the Square, and was walking along the
pavement which led to the baronet's, he had brought his reasoning on
the subject to such a point, that the conclusion, by every rule of
logic, should have led him to a thorough indifference in his
approaches to a fellow-mortal, whether that fellow-mortal was
possessed of six or six thousand pounds a year. It is probable,
however, that the premises had been improperly formed: for it is
certain, that when he approached the great man's door he felt his
heart agitated by an unusual pulsation.

He had almost reached it, when he observed among gentleman coming
out, dressed in a white frock and a red laced waistcoat, with a
small switch in his hand, which he seemed to manage with a
particular good grace. As he passed him on the steps, the stranger
very politely made him a bow, which Harley returned, though he could
not remember ever having seen him before. He asked Harley, in the
same civil manner, if he was going to wait on his friend the
baronet. "For I was just calling," said he, "and am sorry to find
that he is gone for some days into the country."