re in perfection, charms
me wonderfully. As an instance of it, I must acquaint you,
and by your means the whole club, that I have lately married
one of my tenants' daughters. She is born of honest parents,
and tho she has no portion she has a great deal of virtue.
The natural sweetness and innocence of her behavior, the
freshness of her complexion, the unaffected turn of her
shape and person, shot me through and through every time I
saw her, and did more execution upon me in grogram than the
greatest beauty in town or court had ever done in brocade.
In short, she is such a one as promises me a good heir to my
estate; and if by her means I can not leave to my children
what are falsely called the gifts of birth, high titles and
alliances, I hope to convey to them the more real and
valuable gifts of birth, strong bodies and healthy
constitutions. As for your fine women, I need not tell thee
that I know them. I have had my share in their graces, but
no more of that. It shall be my business hereafter to live
the life of an honest man, and to act as becomes the master
of a family. I question not but I shall draw upon me the
raillery of the town, and be treated to the tune of "_The
Marriage-hater match'd_"; but I am prepared for it. I have
been as witty upon others in my time. To tell thee truly, I
saw such a tribe of fashionable young fluttering coxcombs
shot up, that I did not think my post of an _homme de
ruelle_ any longer tenable. I felt a certain stiffness in my
limbs, which entirely destroyed that jauntiness of air I
was once master of. Besides, for I may now confess my age to
thee, I have been eight and forty above these twelve years.
Since my retirement into the country will make a vacancy in
the club, I could wish you would fill up my place with my
friend Tom Dapperwit. He has an infinite deal of fire, and
knows the town. For my own part, as I have said before, I
shall endeavor to live hereafter suitable to a man in my
station, as a prudent head of a family, a good husband, a
careful father (when it shall so happen), and as

Your most sincere friend and humble servant,

WILLIAM HONEYCOMB.

III

PRIDE OF BIRTH[117]

Horace, Juvenal, Boileau, and indeed the greatest writers in almost
every age, have exposed with all the strength o