He asked me to dine with him the next day ; and I disco-
vered we were inmates in the same caravanserai. On return-
ing to mine inn, having left Sir Thomas Villiers, my old ac-
quaintance, in the news room, I encountered on the stairs two
ladies^ who were descending. I drew aside to make room for
them, taking off my hat at the same time; a politeness which
they acknowledged by slight courtesies^ though the\ i^a&«Ad
me iastanily. I saw ibal auc ol VJaam ^n^% ^^\Vi\a.^^^J«s^-'
some, and the other to\eTab\^ l^oodiVi^vci^-



118 THE CONFESSIONS OF

I retired to my chamber early that night, and, while un-
dressing, heard female voices in the next room; which being
divided from mine by a slight moveable panneled partition
only, allowed me to hear every word of the following dia-
logue : —

*' No, you may say what you will, Eliza, but you cannot
persuade me that it can be agreeable to marry a man old
enough to be my father, who wears creaking boots, and a
horrible wig. The very thought of it makes me ill."

» But, really. Miss Villiers ^"

^* Pray, don't Miss Villiers me. Dear Eliza, call me Caro-
line, Gary, as papa does; any thing but Miss, it is so formal."

*'Well, then, dear Caroline, surely Sir Henry Moreton is
not so very old ; and he really is Hill a handsome man."

*^ Why, the very words you use, Eliza, prove be is no fit
husband for me. Not so very old — humph ! and still a hand-
some man. Wby^may not I, a passable looking girl (though
I say it myself, who ought not to say it), with, heaven knows,
how many thousands to my fortune, find a husband (and I am
in no such hurry, either) who is only half a«dozen years older
than myself? a disparity of years which wt>uld make him of
the mature age of twenty-four, and neither too young to look
after a wife» nor too old to have a sympathy in her pleasures.'^

^'But, perhaps he might not possess the large fortune of Sir ^
Henry — his fine seat in the country, his grand mansion in
town."

"Pooh, pooh! a fig for each, and all. 