BRAY is not against it. It is a scheme, he says, worthy of us: and we
have not done any thing for a good while that has made a noise.

BELTON, indeed, hesitates a little, because matters go wrong between him
and his Thomasine; and the poor fellow has not the courage to have his
sore place probed to the bottom.

TOURVILLE has started a fresh game, and shrugs his shoulders, and should
not choose to go abroad at present, if I please. For I apprehend that
(from the nature of the project) there will be a kind of necessity to
travel, till all is blown over.

To ME, one country is as good as another; and I shall soon, I suppose,
choose to quit this paltry island; except the mistress of my fate will
consent to cohabit at home; and so lay me under no necessity of
surprising her into foreign parts. TRAVELLING, thou knowest, gives the
sexes charming opportunities of being familiar with one another. A very
few days and nights must now decide all matters betwixt me and my fair
inimitable.

DOLEMAN, who can act in these causes only as chamber-counsel, will inform
us by pen and ink [his right hand and right side having not yet been
struck, and the other side beginning to be sensible] of all that shall
occur in our absence.

As for THEE, we had rather have thy company than not; for, although thou
art a wretched fellow at contrivance, yet art thou intrepid at execution.
But as thy present engagements make thy attendance uncertain, I am not
for making thy part necessary to our scheme; but for leaving thee to come
after us when abroad. I know thou canst not long live without us.

The project, in short, is this:--Mrs. Howe has an elder sister in the
Isle of Wight, who is lately a widow; and I am well informed, that the
mother and daughter have engaged, before the latter is married, to pay a
visit to this lady, who is rich, and intends Miss for her heiress; and in
the interim will make her some valuable presents on her approaching
nuptials; which, as Mrs. Howe, who loves money more than any thing but
herself, told one of my acquaintance, would be worth fetching.

Now, Jack, nothing more need be done, than to hire a little trim vessel,
which shall sail a pleasuring backward and forward to Portsmouth, Spithead,
and the Isle of Wight, for a week or fortnight before we enter
upon our parts of the plot. And as Mrs. Howe will be for making the best
bargain she can for her passage, the master of the vessel may have orders
(as a perqui