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from all though Mr Dixon of Mary’s excepted to it, asking
with a finicking air did he purpose also to carry coals to
Newcastle. Mr Mulligan however made court to the schol-
arly by an apt quotation from the classics which, as it dwelt
upon his memory, seemed to him a sound and tasteful sup-
port of his contention: Talis ac tanta depravatio hujus seculi,
O quirites, ut matresfamiliarum nostrae lascivas cujuslibet
semiviri libici titillationes testibus ponderosis atque excelsis
erectionibus centurionum Romanorum magnopere antepo-
nunt, while for those of ruder wit he drove home his point
by analogies of the animal kingdom more suitable to their
stomach, the buck and doe of the forest glade, the farmyard
drake and duck.
Valuing himself not a little upon his elegance, being in-
deed a proper man of person, this talkative now applied
himself to his dress with animadversions of some heat upon
the sudden whimsy of the atmospherics while the com-
pany lavished their encomiums upon the project he had
advanced. The young gentleman, his friend, overjoyed as
he was at a passage that had late befallen him, could not
forbear to tell it his nearest neighbour. Mr Mulligan, now
perceiving the table, asked for whom were those loaves and
fishes and, seeing the stranger, he made him a civil bow
and said, Pray, sir, was you in need of any professional as-
sistance we could give? Who, upon his offer, thanked him
very heartily, though preserving his proper distance, and
replied that he was come there about a lady, now an inmate
of Horne’s house, that was in an interesting condition, poor
body, from woman’s woe (and here he fetched a deep sigh)