you have a
sufficient number of books in your hands for the security of the rest.
To go to the strictness of the matter, I own my note engages me to make
the whole payment in the beginning of September. Had it been in my
power, I had not given you occasion to send to me, for I can assure you
I am as impatient and uneasy to pay the money I owe, as some men are to
receive it, and it is no small mortification to refuse you so reasonable
a request, which is that I may no longer be obliged to you."[3]

* * * * *

The loss of his fortune was, of course, a very severe blow to Gay, but
as ever, his friends gathered round him. Instead of being angry with him
for his folly--but no one of his friends was ever angry with him--they
looked upon him, and treated him, just as a spoilt child who had
disobediently tried to get over a hedge and had scratched himself in the
endeavour. They put their heads together to find "something" for him.
Gay, of course, was not easy to deal with; it was difficult to make him
listen to reason. He could not be brought to believe that it was not his
due to receive something for nothing. He had been secretary to Lord
Clarendon's brief Mission to Hanover; why had not diplomacy something to
offer him? The Princess of Wales had asked for a copy of a set of his
verses; was there no place for him at Court? He had praised members of
the Royal Family in verse; was there somewhere--somehow--a sinecure in
the Household for him? It seems that Gay really could not understand the
position. Could not Mrs. Howard do something in his interest? Could not
the friends of Pope do aught to secure that little post? Or Lord
Burlington, or Lord Bathurst, or William Pulteney, or some one of the
rest? He became petulant, and it is a tribute to his charm that not one
of these persons was ever disgusted with him, but continued to feed him,
keep him, and pet him, and made their friends and their friends' friends
do likewise. In fact, this delightful, whimsical, helpless creature
leant upon all who were stronger, and each one upon whom he leant loved
him to his dying day.

Gay's health, which was never robust, gave way under his bitter
disappointment, and in 1721 he went in the early autumn to Bath, where
Mrs. Bradshaw wrote to Mrs. Howard, September 19th: "He is always with
the Duchess of Queensberry." In the following year he was again ill, and
went again to recuperate at the Somersetshire watering