tenement which I still occupy and a fortune of three hundred pounds

a year. I suppose they also handed on to me a hare-brain humour,

which it has been my chief delight to indulge. I received a good

education. I can play the violin nearly well enough to earn money

in the orchestra of a penny gaff, but not quite. The same remark

applies to the flute and the French horn. I learned enough of

whist to lose about a hundred a year at that scientific game. My

acquaintance with French was sufficient to enable me to squander

money in Paris with almost the same facility as in London. In

short, I am a person full of manly accomplishments. I have had

every sort of adventure, including a duel about nothing. Only two

months ago I met a young lady exactly suited to my taste in mind

and body; I found my heart melt; I saw that I had come upon my fate

at last, and was in the way to fall in love. But when I came to

reckon up what remained to me of my capital, I found it amounted to

something less than four hundred pounds! I ask you fairly - can a

man who respects himself fall in love on four hundred pounds? I

concluded, certainly not; left the presence of my charmer, and

slightly accelerating my usual rate of expenditure, came this

morning to my last eighty pounds. This I divided into two equal

parts; forty I reserved for a particular purpose; the remaining

forty I was to dissipate before the night. I have passed a very

entertaining day, and played many farces besides that of the cream

tarts which procured me the advantage of your acquaintance; for I

was determined, as I told you, to bring a foolish career to a still

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