I comforted myself with this declaration a few weeks longer, at the end of which I appeared again before his wicket, was let in, and found him laid up with the gout.

I no sooner entered his chamber than, looking at me with a languishing eye, he said, "Mr.
Melopoyn, I'm heartily sorry for an accident that has happened during my illness.

You must know that my eldest boy, finding your manuscript upon the table in the dining-room, where I used to read it, carried it into the kitchen, and leaving it there, a negligent wench of a cook-maid, mistaking it for waste paper, has expended it but a few leaves in singing fowls upon the spit.

But I hope the misfortune is not irreparable, since, no doubt, you have several copies." "I protest to you, my good friend, Mr.Random, I was extremely shocked at this information; but the good-natured gentleman seemed to be so much affected with my misfortune, that I suppressed my concern, and told him that, although I had not another copy, I should be able to retrieve the loss by writing another from my memory, which was very tenacious.

You cannot imagine how well pleased Mr.Supple was at this assurance; he begged I would set about it immediately, and carefully revolve and recollect every circumstance before I pretended to commit it to paper, that it might be the same individual play that he had perused.
Encouraged by this injunction, which plainly demonstrated how much he interested himself in the affair, I tasked my remembrance and industry, and in three weeks produced the exact image of the former, which was conveyed to him by my good friend Father O'Varnish, who told me next day, that Mr.Supple would revise it superficially, in order to judge of its sameness with the other, and then give his final answer.