 audible voice, Will
your lordship please to be at home, when he calls? It is not to be supposed that
I was pleased at this discovery, which I no sooner made, than turning to my
conductor, I find, (said I) his lordship is disposed to be abroad to more people
than me this morning. The fellow (though a valet de chambre) blushed at this
observation; and I withdrew, not a little irritated at the silly peer's
disingenuity, and fully resolved to spare him my visits for the future. It was
not long after this occasion, that I happened to meet him in the park, and being
naturally civil, I could not pass him without a salutation of the hat, which he
returned in the most distant manner, though we were both solitary, and not a
soul within view; and when that very performance, which he had applauded so
warmly, was lately published by subscription, he did not bespeak so much as one
copy. I have often reflected with wonder upon this ridiculous inconsistency in
the man's conduct, which looks like the result of a settled design to render
himself odious and contemptible. I never courted his patronage, nor indeed
thought of his name, until he made interest for my acquaintance; and if he was
disappointed in my conversation, why did he press me so much to further
connexion?«
    »The case is very clear, (cried the chairman, interrupting him) he is one of
those coxcombs who set up for taste, and value themselves upon knowing all men
of genius, whom they would be thought to assist in their productions. I will lay
an even bet with any man, that his lordship, on the strength of that slender
interview, together with the opportunity of having seen your performance in
manuscript, has already hinted to every company in which he is conversant, that
you solicited his assistance in retouching the piece, which you have now offered
to the publick, and that he was pleased to favour you with his advice, but found
you obstinately bigotted to your own opinion, in some points relating to those
very passages which have not met with the approbation of the town. And as for
his caresses, there was nothing at all extraordinary in his behaviour. By that
time you have lived to my age, you will not be surprized to see a courtier's
promise and performance of a different complexion: not but that I would
willingly act as an auxiliary to your resentment, if I thought it was possible
to make him repent of his pitiful dissimulation; but, if I guess
