s the lady again, 'I don't mean so; he is no beauty, no rarity
that way; but I mean a clever good sort of a man in his business, such
as we call a pretty tradesman.'

'Ay,' says the lady employed, 'but that is not all neither.'

'Why,' says the other lady, 'he has a very good trade too, and lives in
good credit.'

'Yes,' says malice, 'he has some of the first, but not too much of the
last, I suppose.'

'No!' says the lady; 'I thought his credit had been very good.'

'If it had, I suppose,' says the first, 'the match had not been broke
off.'

'Why,' says the lady, 'I understood it was broken off on his side.'

'And so did I,' says another.

'And so did I, indeed,' says a third.

'Oh, Madam!' says the tool, 'nothing like it, I assure you.'

'Indeed,' says another, I understood he had quitted Mrs----, because she
had not fortune enough for him, and that he courted another certain
lady, whom we all know.'

Then the ladies fell to talking of the circumstances of his leaving her,
and how he had broken from her abruptly and unmannerly, and had been too
free with her character; at which the first lady, that is to say, the
emissary, or tool, as I call her, took it up a little warmly, thus:--

1. _Lady_.--Well, you see, ladies, how easily a lady's reputation may be
injured; I hope you will not go away with it so.

2. _Lady_.--Nay, we have all of us a respect for Mrs----, and some of us
visit there sometimes; I believe none of us would be willing to injure
her.

1. _Lady_.--But indeed, ladies, she is very much injured in that story.

2. _Lady_.--Indeed, it is generally understood so, and every body
believes it.

1. _Lady_.--I can assure you it is quite otherwise in fact.

2. _Lady_.--I believe he reports it so himself, and that with some very
odd things about the lady too.

1. _Lady_.--The more base unworthy fellow he.

2. _Lady_.--Especially if he knows it to be otherwise.

1. _Lady_.--Especially if he knows the contrary to be true, Madam.

2. _Lady_.--Is that possible? Did he not refuse her, then?

1. _Lady_.--Nothing like it, Madam; but just the contrary.

2. _Lady_.--You surprise me!

3. _Lady_.--I am very glad to hear it, for her sake.

1. _Lady_.--I can assure you, Madam, she had refused him, and that he
knows well enough, which has been one of the reasons that has made him
abuse her as he has done.

2. _Lady_.--Indeed, she has been used very ill by him, or somebody for
him.

1. _Lady_.--Ye