egad! I could learn to eat frogs as soon as another man, if it came to
that. Well, I need a holiday, after working so hard in that cursed
devil's paradise I've just come from. I suppose I can depend on you
for a little pocket-money, ma'am, till dad comes to a conclusion?"

During the next fortnight, as he passed most of his time in the
taverns and the coffee-house, save when he attended horse-races on
Long Island, or chased foxes upon Tom's horse, or lent the honour of
his presence to cock-fights; Mr. Edward found his mother's resources
inadequate to his demands, and so levied tribute not only upon Fanny
and Tom but also upon Mr. Cornelius, who still abode in the
Faringfield house, and upon Philip Winwood. To Phil his manner was
more than civil; 'twas most conciliating and flattering, in a
pleasantly jocular way.

Ere Mr. Faringfield had announced his mind, the visitor had worn out
his welcome in most of his tavern haunts, and become correspondingly
tired of New York. One evening, as Philip was leaving the warehouse, a
negro boy handed him a note, in which Mr. Ned begged him to come
immediately, on a matter of importance, to the King's Arms tavern.
There he found Edward seated at a small table in a corner of the
tap-room. Ned would have it that Phil should send home his excuses, by
the negro, and sup at the tavern; which, for the sake of peace, though
unwillingly, Philip finally consented to do.

Edward was drinking rum, in a kind of hot punch of his own mixing.
Phil, though fond of madeira at home, now contented himself with ale;
and the two were soon at work upon a fried chicken prepared in the
Maryland fashion.