sation; but no one seemed
inclined to descend from his dignity, or first to propose a topic of
discourse. At last a corpulent gentleman, who had equipped himself for
this expedition with a scarlet surtout {72} and a large hat with a
broad lace, drew out his watch, looked on it in silence, and then held
it dangling at his finger. This was, I suppose, understood by all the
company as an invitation to ask the time of the day, but nobody
appeared to heed his overture; and his desire to be talking so far
overcame his resentment, that he let us know of his own accord that it
was past five, and that in two hours we should be at breakfast.

His condescension was thrown away; we continued all obdurate; the
ladies held up their heads; I amused myself with watching their
behaviour; and of the other two, one seemed to employ himself in
counting the trees as we drove by them, the other drew his hat over his
eyes and counterfeited a slumber. The man of benevolence, to shew that
he was not depressed by our neglect, hummed a tune and beat time upon
his snuff-box.

Thus universally displeased with one another, and not much delighted
with ourselves, we came at last to the little inn appointed for our
repast; and all began at once to recompense ourselves for the restraint
of silence, by innumerable questions and orders to the people that
attended us. At last, what every one had called for was got, or
declared impossible to be got at that time, and we were persuaded to
sit round the same table; when the gentleman in the red surtout looked
again upon his watch, told us that we had half an hour to spare, but he
was sorry to see so little merriment among us; that all
fellow-travellers were for the time upon the level, and that it was
always his way to make himself one of the company. "I remember," says
he, "it was on just such a morning as this, that I and my lord Mumble
and the {73} duke of Tenterden were out upon a ramble: we called at a
little house as it might be this; and my landlady, I warrant you, not
suspecting to whom she was talking, was so jocular and facetious, and
made so many merry answers to our questions, that we were all ready to
burst with laughter. At last the good woman happening to overhear me
whisper the duke and call him by his title, was so surprised and
confounded, that we could scarcely get a word from her; and the duke
never met me from that day to this, but he talks of the little house,
and quarrels with me