resolution, never to hazard a conjecture without a better foundation
than that he started to me, and which I rather believe he hit off
_extempore_, to speak to me, and shew himself my countryman, than from
really suspecting that the woman behind the curtain was either _Lady
Bristol_, or _Mrs. Rudd_; though I was inclined to think it very
probable, for I had seen _Lord Bristol_ on his way through _Lyons_ from
_Italy_ to _England_, and had been informed, _Lady Bristol_ was then on
her road to _Italy_; in which case, I, like the footman, had my
conjectures, and accounted for the leather curtains being so _closely
buckled to_.

These are trifling remarks, you will say; but if a sign-painter can
paint only a bear, those who employ him must have a bear for their
sign; nevertheless, we have all a certain curiosity to know even the
most trifling actions, or movements of people, who by their virtues or
vices, especially if they are people of rank or condition, have
occasioned much talk in the world; and therefore, ridiculous as this
incident is, yet as we have long known one of the Ladies, and often
_admired_ both, I could not let either one or the other pass me
unnoticed, on a road too, where even an English Duchess (if she would
own the truth) would feel a secret delight in meeting of a
Hyde-park-corner groom.

I have already mentioned what partiality and degree of notice,
countrymen take of each other when they meet far from home. That notice
is always in proportion to the distance. Had my _Bonne_ footman spoke of
_Lady Bristol_, or _Mrs. Rudd_, in such free terms as _how he seed 'em_,
&c. &c. at Hyde-park-corner, or in Tyburn-road, I should have knocked
him down with the but end of my whip; but at _Bonne_ (five hundred
miles from either of those places) he and I were _quatre cousins_; and I