two prigs,[Footnote: Thieves] that in reality it recommended them
to each other; for a wise man, that is to say a rogue, considers a
trick in life as a gamester doth a trick at play. It sets him on
his guard, but he admires the dexterity of him who plays it.
These, therefore, and many other such instances of ingenuity,
operated so violently on the count, that, notwithstanding the
disparity which age, title, and above all, dress, had set between
them, he resolved to enter into an acquaintance with Wild. This
soon produced a perfect intimacy, and that a friendship, which had
a longer duration than is common to that passion between persons
who only propose to themselves the common advantages of eating,
drinking, whoring, or borrowing money; which ends, as they soon
fail, so doth the friendship founded upon them. Mutual interest,
the greatest of all purposes, was the cement of this alliance,
which nothing, of consequence, but superior interest, was capable
of dissolving.




CHAPTER FIVE

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN YOUNG MASTER WILD AND COUNT LA RUSE, WHICH,
HAVING EXTENDED TO THE REJOINDER, HAD A VERY QUIET, EASY, AND
NATURAL CONCLUSION.


One evening, after the Miss Snaps were retired to rest, the count
thus addressed himself to young Wild: "You cannot, I apprehend,
Mr. Wild, be such a stranger to your own great capacity, as to be