The subjects of discourse at dinner were various, as you may well suppose; and the circle was too large to fall upon any regular or very remarkable topics.  A good deal of sprightly wit, however, flew about, between the Earl of D., Lady Towers, and Mr. Martin, in which that lord suffered as he deserved; for he was no match for the lady, especially as the presence of the dean was a very visible restraint upon him, and Mr. Brooks too:  so much awe will the character of a good clergyman always have upon even forward spirits, where he is known to have had an inviolable regard to it himself.—­Besides, the good gentleman has, naturally, a genteel and inoffensive vein of raillery, and so was too hard for them at their own weapons.  But after dinner, and the servants being withdrawn, Mr. Martin singled me out, as he loves to do, for a subject of encomium, and made some high compliments to my dear Mr. B. upon his choice; and wished (as he often does), he could find just such another for himself.

Lady Towers told him it was a thing as unaccountable as it was unreasonable, that every rake who loved to destroy virtue, should expect to be rewarded with it:  and if his brother B. had come off so well, she thought no one else ought to expect it.

Lady Davers said, it was a very just observation:  and she thought it a pity there was not a law, that every man who made a harlot of an honest woman, should be obliged to marry one of another’s making.

Mr. B. said, that would be too severe; it would be punishment enough, if he was to marry his own; and especially if he had not seduced her under promise of marriage.

“Then you’d have a man be obliged to stand to his promise, I suppose, Mr. B.?” replied Lady Davers.  “Yes, madam.”—­“But,” said she, “the proof would be difficult perhaps:  and the most unguilty heart of our sex might be least able to make it out.—­But what say you, my Lord D.; will you, and my Lord Davers, join to bring a bill into the House of Peers, for the purposes I mentioned?  I fancy my brother would give it all the assistance he could in the Lower House.”

“Indeed,” said Mr. B., “if I may be allowed to speak in the plural number, we must not pretend to hold an argument on this subject.—­What say you, Mr. H.?  Which side are you of?”—­“Every gentleman,” replied he, “who is not of the ladies’ side, is deemed a criminal; and I was always of the side that had the power of the gallows.”

“That shews,” returned Lady Towers, “that Mr. H. is more afraid of the punishment, than of deserving it.”—­“’Tis well,” said Mr. B.,” that any consideration deters a man of Mr. H.’s time of life.  What may be fear now, may improve to virtue in time.”

“Ay,” said Lady Davers, “Jackey is one of his uncle’s foxes:  he’d be glad to snap up a straggling pullet, if he was not well looked after, perhaps.”—­“Pray, my dear,” said Lord Davers, “forbear:  you ought not to introduce two different conversations into different companies.”