'Only this morning I get an account of an English gentleman of my acquaintance.

He is nearly forty--he possesses a large estate--his mother and sisters are on their knees to him to marry--it will all go to a cousin, and the cousin has forged--or something.

And he--not he! He don't care what happens to the estate.

He has only got the one life, he says--and he won't spoil it.

And of course it does your women harm! Women are always dull when the men don't court them!' The table laughed.