Mr. Snap, who had just returned from conveying the count to his
lodgings, and was then walking to and fro before the gaming-house
door; for you are to know, my good reader, if you have never been
a man of wit and pleasure about town, that, as the voracious pike
lieth snug under some weed before the mouth of any of those little
streams which discharge themselves into a large river, waiting for
the small fry which issue thereout, so hourly, before the door or
mouth of these gaming-houses, doth Mr. Snap, or some other
gentleman of his occupation, attend the issuing forth of the small
fry of young gentlemen, to whom they deliver little slips of
parchment, containing invitations of the said gentlemen to their
houses, together with one Mr. John Doe,[Footnote: This is a
fictitious name which is put into every writ; for what purpose the
lawyers best know.] a person whose company is in great request.
Mr. Snap, among many others of these billets, happened to have one
directed to Mr. Bagshot, being at the suit or solicitation of one
Mrs. Anne Sample, spinster, at whose house the said Bagshot had
lodged several months, and whence he had inadvertently departed
without taking a formal leave, on which account Mrs. Anne had
taken this method of SPEAKING WITH him.

Mr. Snap's house being now very full of good company, he was
obliged to introduce Mr. Bagshot into the count's apartment, it
being, as he said, the only chamber he had to LOCK UP in. Mr. Wild
no sooner saw his friend than he ran eagerly to embrace him, and
immediately presented him to the count, who received him with
great civility.