for terrifying the landlady."

He had scarcely time to congratulate himself on the veneration which
this narrative must have procured him from the company, when one of the
ladies having reached out for a plate on a distant part of the table,
began to remark "the inconveniences of travelling, and the difficulty
which they who never sat at home without a great number of attendants
found in performing for themselves such offices as the road required;
but that people of quality often travelled in disguise, and might be
generally known from the vulgar by their condescension to poor
inn-keepers, and the allowance which they made for any defect in their
entertainment; that for her part, while people were civil and meant
well, it was never her custom to find fault, for one was not to expect
upon a journey all that one enjoyed at one's own house."

A general emulation seemed now to be excited. One of the men, who had
hitherto said nothing, called for the last news-paper; and having
perused it a while with deep pensiveness, "It is impossible," says he,
"for any man to guess how to act with regard to the stocks: last {74}
week it was the general opinion that they would fall; and I sold out
twenty thousand pounds in order to a purchase: they have now risen
unexpectedly; and I make no doubt but at my return to London, I shall
risk thirty thousand pounds amongst them again."

A young man, who had hitherto distinguished himself only by the
vivacity of his looks, and a frequent diversion of his eyes from one
object to another, upon this closed his snuff-box, and told us, that
"he had a hundred times talked with the chancellor and the judges on
the subject of the stocks; that for his part he did not pretend to be
well acquainted with the principles on which they were established, but
had always heard them reckoned pernicious to trade, uncertain in their
produce, and unsolid in their foundation; and that he had been advised
by three judges, his most intimate friends, never to venture his money
in the funds, but to put it out upon land security, till he could light
upon an estate in his own country."

It might be expected, that upon these glimpses of latent dignity, we
should all have begun to look round us with veneration; and have
behaved like the princes of romance, when the enchantment that
disguises them is dissolved and they discover the dignity of each
other: yet it happened, that none of these hints made much impression
on t