Though the duchess had resented his supposed
affection, she was now offended at his insensibility, and even
signified her disgust, by observing, that perhaps his attention
to his own qualifications screened him from the impression of all
other objects.
While he enjoyed this sarcasm, the meaning of which he could
plainly discern, the company was joined by a certain virtuoso, who
had gained free access to all the great families of the land, by
his noble talent of gossiping and buffoonery. He was now in the
seventy-fifth year of his age; his birth was so obscure, that he
scarce knew his father's name; his education suitable to the dignity
of his descent; his character publicly branded with homicide,
profligacy, and breach of trust; yet this man, by the happy
inheritance of impregnable effrontery, and a lucky prostitution
of all principle in rendering himself subservient to the appetites
of the great, had attained to an independency of fortune, as well
as to such a particular share of favour among the quality, that,
although he was well known to have pimped for three generations of
the nobility, there was not a lady of fashion in the kingdom who
scrupled to admit him to her toilette, or even to be squired by him
in any place of public entertainment.
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