I have assured him, and my two cousins, that I will behave with all the
decency and respect that man can behave with to the person whom he most
respects. And so I will. Of this, if thou choosest not to go to Belton
mean time, thou shalt be witness.

Colonel Morden, thou hast heard me say, is a man of honour and bravery:--
but Colonel Morden has had his girls, as well as you or I. And indeed,
either openly or secretly, who has not? The devil always baits with a
pretty wench, when he angles for a man, be his age, rank, or degree, what
it will.

I have often heard my beloved speak of the Colonel with great distinction
and esteem. I wish he could make matters a little easier, for her mind's
sake, between the rest of the implacables and herself.

Methinks I am sorry for honest Belton. But a man cannot be ill, or
vapourish, but thou liftest up thy shriek-owl note, and killest him
immediately. None but a fellow, who is for a drummer in death's
forlorn-hope, could take so much delight, as thou dost, in beating a
dead-march with thy goose-quills. Whereas, didst thou but know thine own
talents, thou art formed to give mirth by thy very appearance; and
wouldst make a better figure by half, leading up thy brother-bears at
Hockley in the Hole, to the music of a Scot's bagpipe. Methinks I see
thy clumsy sides shaking, (and shaking the sides of all beholders,) in
these attitudes; thy fat head archly beating time on thy porterly
shoulders, right and left by turns, as I once beheld thee practising to
the horn-pipe at Preston. Thou remembrest the frolick, as I have done
an hundred times; for I never before saw thee appear so much in
character.