poignant wit, and the most entertaining stories; but his most delicate
and spirited raillery turned generally against matrimony; and, as if he
wished to confirm, by his own example, the truth of what he had written
in his youth, he married, at the age of seventy-nine, this Miss Brook of
whom we are speaking, who was only eighteen.

The Duke of York had rather neglected her for some time before; but the
circumstance of so unequal a match rekindled his ardour; and she, on her
part, suffered him to entertain hopes of an approaching bliss, which a
thousand considerations had opposed before her marriage: she wished to
belong to the court; and for the promise of being made lady of the
bedchamber to the duchess, she was upon the point of making him another
promise, or of immediately performing it, if required, when, in the
middle of this treaty, Lady Chesterfield was tempted, by her evil genius,
to rob her of her conquest, in order to disturb all the world.

However, as Lady Chesterfield could not see the Duke of York, except
in public assemblies, she was under the necessity of making the most
extravagant advances, in order to seduce him from his former connection;
and as he was the most unguarded ogler of his time, the whole court was
informed of the intrigue before it was well begun.

Those who appeared the most attentive to their conduct were not the least
interested in it. Hamilton and Lord Chesterfield watched them narrowly;
but Lady Denham, vexed that Lady Chesterfield should have stepped in
before her, took the liberty of railing against her rival with the
greatest bitterness. Hamilton had hitherto flattered himself that vanity
alone had engaged Lady Chesterfield in this adventure; but he was soon
undeceived, whatever her indifference might have been when she first
commenced this intrigue. We often proceed farther than we at first