 I had
knocked his Brains out with the Punch-bowl.«
    The principal Uneasiness with which Sophia was affected on this Occasion,
Honour had herself caused, by having in her Passion discovered who she was.
However, as this Mistake of the Landlord sufficiently accounted for those
Passages which Sophia had before mistaken, she acquired some Ease on that
Account; nor could she, upon the whole, forbear smiling. This enraged Honour,
and she cried, »Indeed, Madam, I did not think your Ladyship would have made a
laughing Matter of it. To be called Whore by such an impudent low Rascal. Your
Ladyship may be angry with me, for ought I know, for taking your Part, since
proffered Service, they say, stinks; but to be sure I could never bear to hear a
Lady of mine called Whore. - Nor will I bear it. I am sure your Ladyship is as
virtuous a Lady as ever sat Foot on English Ground, and I will claw any
Villain's Eyes out who dares for to offer to presume for to say the least Word
to the contrary. No body ever could say the least ill of the Character of any
Lady that ever I waited upon.«
    Hinc illæ Lachrymæ; in plain Truth, Honour had as much Love for her Mistress
as most Servants have, that is to say - But besides this, her Pride obliged her
to support the Character of the Lady she waited on; for she thought her own was
in a very close Manner connected with it. In Proportion as the Character of her
Mistress was raised, hers likewise, as she conceived, was raised with it; and,
on the contrary, she thought the one could not be lowered without the other.
    On this Subject, Reader, I must stop a Moment to tell thee a Story. »The
famous Nell Gwynn, stepping one Day from a House where she had made a short
Visit into her Coach, saw a great Mob assembled, and her Footman all bloody and
dirty; the Fellow being asked, by his Mistress, the Reason of his being in that
Condition, answered, I have been fighting, Madam, with an impudent Rascal who
called your Ladyship a Wh-re. You Blockhead, replied Mrs. Gwynn, at this Rate
you must fight every Day of your Life; why, you Fool, all the World knows it. Do
they? cries the Fellow, in a muttering Voice, after he had shut the Coach Door,
they shan't call me a Whore's Footman for all that.«
    Thus the Passion of
