 who
have the Honour to attend at the Doors of our great Men. The Porter in his
Lodge, answers exactly to Cerberus in his Den, and, like him, must be appeased
by a Sop, before Access can be gained to his Master. Perhaps Jones might have
seen him in that Light, and have recollected the Passage, where the Sybil, in
order to procure an Entrance for Æneas, presents the Keeper of the Stygian
Avenue with such a Sop. Jones, in like Manner, now began to offer a Bribe to the
human Cerberus, which a Footman overhearing, instantly advanced, and declared,
»if Mr. Jones would give him the Sum proposed, he would conduct him to the
Lady.« Jones instantly agreed, and was forthwith conducted to the Lodging of
Mrs. Fitzpatrick, by the very Fellow who had attended the Ladies thither the Day
before.
    Nothing more aggravates ill Success than the near Approach to Good. The
Gamester, who loses his Party at Piquet by a single Point, laments his bad Luck
ten Times as much as he who never came within a Prospect of the Game. So in a
Lottery, the Proprietors of the next Numbers to that which wins the great Prize,
are apt to account themselves much more unfortunate than their Fellow-Sufferers.
In short, these kind of hair-breadth Missings of Happiness, look like the
Insults of Fortune, who may be considered as thus playing Tricks with us, and
wantonly diverting herself at our Expence.
    Jones, who more than once already had experienced this frolicksome
Disposition of the Heathen Goddess, was now again doomed to be tantalized in the
like Manner: For he arrived at the Door of Mrs. Fitzpatrick, about ten Minutes
after the Departure of Sophia. He now addressed himself to the Waiting-
belonging to Mrs. Fitzpatrick; who told him the disagreeable News, that the Lady
was gone, but could not tell him whither; and the same Answer he afterwards
received from Mrs. Fitzpatrick herself. For as that Lady made no doubt but that
Mr. Jones was a Person detached from her Uncle Western, in Pursuit of his
Daughter, so she was too generous to betray her.
    Though Jones had never seen Mrs. Fitzpatrick, yet he had heard that a Cousin
of Sophia was married to a Gentleman of that Name. This, however, in the present
Tumult of his Mind, never once recurred to his Memory: But when the Footman, who
had conducted him from his Lordship's, acquainted him with the great Intimacy
between the Ladies, and with their calling each other Cousin, he then
