Peregrine assured her
the experiment should be tried before parting; and they agreed to
pass the night at Versailles, provided his endeavours should succeed.
Having exercised themselves in this manner, until his duenna's spirits
were pretty much exhausted, that she might be the be the better
disposed to recruit them with a glass of liqueur, they returned to
their apartment, and the cordial was recommended and received in a
bumper; but as it did not produce such a visible alteration as the
sanguine hopes of Pickle had made him expect, and the old gentlewoman
observed that it began to be late, and that the gates would be shut
in a little time, he filled up a parting glass, and pledged her in
equal quantity. Her blood was too much chilled to be warmed even by
this extraordinary dose, which made immediate innovation in the brain
of our youth, who, in the gaiety of his imagination, overwhelmed
this she-Argus with such profusion of gallantry, that she was more
intoxicated with his expressions than with the spirits she had drunk.
When in the course of toying he dropped a purse into her bosom, she
seemed to forget how the night wore, and, with the approbation of
her charge, assented to his proposal of having something for supper.
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