us did
Eurydice!

Her Ladyship had a house in Berkeley Square, London, more splendid than
that which she possessed in Dublin; and, knowing that she would come
thither, I preceded her to the English capital, and took handsome
apartments in Hill Street, hard by. I had the same intelligence in her
London house which I had procured in Dublin. The same faithful porter
was there to give me all the information I required. I promised to
treble his wages as soon as a certain event should happen. I won over
Lady Lyndon's companion by a present of a hundred guineas down, and a
promise of two thousand when I should be married, and gained the
favours of her favourite lady's-maid by a bribe of similar magnitude. My
reputation had so far preceded me in London that, on my arrival, numbers
of the genteel were eager to receive me at their routs. We have no idea
in this humdrum age what a gay and splendid place London was then: what
a passion for play there was among young and old, male and female; what
thousands were lost and won in a night; what beauties there were--how
brilliant, gay, and dashing! Everybody was delightfully wicked: the
Royal Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland set the example; the nobles
followed close behind. Running away was the fashion. Ah! it was a
pleasant time; and lucky was he who had fire, and youth, and money, and
could live in it! I had all these; and the old frequenters of 'White's,'
'Wattier's,' and 'Goosetree's' could tell stories of the gallantry,
spirit, and high fashion of Captain Barry.

The progress of a love-story is tedious to all those who are not
concerned, and I leave such themes to the hack novel-writers, and the
young boarding-school misses for whom they write. It is not my intention
to follow, step by step, the incidents of my courtship, or to narrate
all the difficulties I had to contend with, and my triumphant manner of
surmounting them. Suffice it to say, I DID overcome these difficulties.
I am of opinion, with my friend the late ingenious Mr. Wilkes, that such
impediments are nothing in the way of a man of spirit; and that he can
convert indifference and aversion into love, if he have perseverance and
cleverness sufficient. By the time the Countess's widowhood was expired,
I had found means to be received into her house; I had her women
perpetually talking in my favour, vaunting my powers, expatiating
upon my reputation, and boasting of my success and popularity in the
fashionable world.