The repast being
ended, the reckoning paid, and part of the gentlemen withdrawn to
cards, or other avocations, those who remained, among whom Peregrine
made one, agreed to spend the afternoon in conversation over a bowl
of punch; and the liquor being produced, they passed the time very
socially in various topics of discourse, including many curious
anecdotes relating to their own affairs. No man scrupled to own the
nature of the debt for which he was confined, unless it happened
to be some piddling affair, but, on the contrary, boasted of the
importance of the sum, as a circumstance that implied his having
been a person of consequence in life; and he who made the most
remarkable escapes from bailiffs, was looked upon as a man of
superior genius and address.
Among other extraordinary adventures of this kind, none was more
romantic than the last elopement achieved by the officer; who told
them he had been arrested for a debt of two hundred pounds, at a
time when he could not command as many pence, and conveyed to the
bailiff's house, in which he continued a whole fortnight, moving
his lodgings higher and higher, from time to time, in proportion
to the decay of his credit; until, from the parlour, he had made
a regular ascent to the garret.
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