Galloping Dick
to it; for ’twas a rare chance fallen in my way, such as we devil-may-care gentry would accept singing. I would ha’ leapt to gather the fruits of our relations, with her a widow, as I conceived, and guineas chinking in from many a broad acre. And if it came to that, I had a fancy for her, for she was a woman of mark, with the brand of her beauty as thick on her as her powder. Not but what Polly Scarlett had a neater turn to her shoulders, and a smarter leg to her kirtle. For the matter of that neither was as good as Miss’s for I had seen both of hers pretty plain. Yet her ladyship had an air of gaiety, as it might be, which reminded me of Mrs Polly, and I’ll dare swear, save for the other considerations, there was little to pick between ’em. Still, the adventure, upon my reflections, came out thus: that I would be married an’ she would have it, and be damned to Sir Charles and sis also. And having gotten these convictions, what does I do, but, like a fool, gets on Calypso, and rides off to a mews near by; whence, striking into the square, I stopped before her ladyship’s door.
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