 In Fact, to drop all Allegory, he began to consider whether his Wife was
not really a more valuable Possession than he had lately thought her. In short,
as he had been disappointed in her Fortune, he now conceived some Hopes of
turning her Beauty itself into a Fortune.
    Without communicating these Views to her, he soon scraped an Acquaintance
with his opposite Neighbour by the Name which he there usurped, and
counterfeited an entire Ignorance of his real Name and Title. On this Occasion
Trent had his Disguise likewise, for he affected the utmost Simplicity; of which
Affectation, as he was a very artful Fellow, he was extremely capable.
    The Peer fell plumb into this Snare; and when, by the Simplicity, as he
imagined, of the Husband he became acquainted with the Wife, he was so
extravagantly charmed with her Person, that he resolved, whatever was the Cost
or the Consequence, he would possess her.
    His Lordship, however, preserved some Caution in his Management of this
Affair; more, perhaps, than was necessary. As for the Husband, none was
requisite; for he knew all he could; and with regard to the Wife herself, as she
had, for some Time, perceived the Decrease of her Husband's Affection, (for few
Women are, I believe, to be imposed upon in that Matter) she was not displeased
to find the Return of all that Complaisance and Endearment, of those Looks and
Languishments from another agreeable Person which she had formerly received from
Trent, and which she now found she should receive from him no longer.
    My Lord, therefore, having been indulged with as much Opportunity as he
could wish from Trent, and having received rather more Encouragement than he
could well have hoped from the Lady, began to prepare all Matters for a Storm,
when luckily Mr. Trent declaring he must go out of Town for two Days, he fix'd
on the first Day of his Departure as the Time of carrying his Design into
Execution.
    And now, after some Debate with himself in what Manner he should approach
his Love, he at last determined to do it in his own Person; for he conceived,
and perhaps very rightly, that the Lady, like Semele, was not void of Ambition,
and would have preferred Jupiter in all his Glory to the same Deity in the
Disguise of an humble Shepherd. He dressed himself therefore in the richest
Embroidery of which he was Master, and appeared before his Mistress array'd in
all the Brightness of Peerage. A Sight whose Charms she had not the Power to
resist,
