CHAPTER IV.



IN WHICH THE HEROINE HAS A NUMBER MORE LOVERS, AND CUTS A VERY
DASHING FIGURE IN THE WORLD.

Two years have elapsed since the festival at Richmond, which, begun
so peaceably, ended in such general uproar. Morgiana never could be
brought to pardon Woolsey's red hair, nor to help laughing at
Eglantine's disasters, nor could the two gentlemen be reconciled to
one another. Woolsey, indeed, sent a challenge to the perfumer to
meet him with pistols, which the latter declined, saying, justly,
that tradesmen had no business with such weapons; on this the tailor
proposed to meet him with coats off, and have it out like men, in
the presence of their friends of the "Kidney Club". The perfumer
said he would be party to no such vulgar transaction; on which,
Woolsey, exasperated, made an oath that he would tweak the
perfumer's nose so surely as he ever entered the club-room; and thus
ONE member of the "Kidneys" was compelled to vacate his armchair.

Woolsey himself attended every meeting regularly, but he did not
evince that gaiety and good-humour which render men's company
agreeable in clubs. On arriving, he would order the boy to "tell
him when that scoundrel Eglantine came;" and, hanging up his hat on
a peg, would scowl round the room, and tuck up his sleeves very
high, and stretch, and shake his fingers and wrists, as if getting
them ready for that pull of the nose which he intended to bestow
upon his rival. So prepared, he would sit down and smoke his pipe