 send her, in a present, a couple of fine pine-apples, which
she would that very day go in quest of.
    Mrs. Pickle would by no means consent to this proposal, on pretence of
sparing the other unnecessary fatigue; and assured her, that if she had any
desire to eat a pine-apple, it was so faint, that the disappointment could
produce no bad consequence. But this assurance was conveyed in a manner (which
she knew very well how to adopt) that instead of dissuading, rather stimulated
Mrs. Grizzle to set out immediately, not on a visit to that lady, whose promise
she herself had feigned with a view of consulting her sister's tranquillity, but
on a random search thro' the whole county for this unlucky fruit, which was like
to produce so much vexation and prejudice to her and her father's house.
    During three whole days and nights, did she, attended by a valet, ride from
place to place without success, unmindful of her health, and careless of her
reputation, that began to suffer from the nature of her inquiry, which was
pursued with such peculiar eagerness and distraction, that every body with whom
she conversed, looked upon her as an unhappy person, whose intellects were not a
little disordered.
    Baffled in all her researches within the county, she at length resolved to
visit that very nobleman, at whose house the officious stranger had been (for
her) so unfortunately regaled, and actually arrived in a post-chaise at the
place of his habitation, where she introduced her business as an affair on which
the happiness of a whole family depended. But, alas! she had come too late; his
lordship lamented, in very polite and pathetic terms, that he was disabled from
exerting his humanity, and enjoying the pleasure he should feel in contributing
to the happiness of his fellow-creatures, at such an easy rate; telling her,
that he had unluckily, the very day before, sent the two last pine-apples his
garden had produced, in a present to a certain lady in the neighbourhood.
    Mrs. Grizzle was so affected with this explanation, that she fainted away,
and was immediately carried to the public house, where she had left her horses,
and where she remained inconsolable for the disappointment, which in all
likelihood would have proved more fatal to her than to the person for whom she
was so piously concerned, had not she in the evening, by the medium of her own
servant, received a hint from the nobleman's gardener, that for five pieces she
