The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I

zzle at the Wedding, with

e was sheathed with a most agreeable and infantine lisp, her address was perfectly obliging, and though conscious of the extraordinary capacity of her month, she would not venture to hazard a laugh, she modelled her lips into an enchanting simper, which played on her countenance all day long; nay, she even profited by that defect in her vision we have already observed, and securely contemplated those features which were most to her liking, while the rest o

which, with what little she had saved of the interest since his death, was all she had to depend on: indeed, if she had placed her chief felicity in wealth, she should not have been so forward in destroying her own expectations, by advising and promoting the event at which they were now so happily assembled; but she hoped she should always have virtue enough to postp

ith her voice, which, though not the most melodious in the world, I dare say, would have been equally at their service could she have vied with Philomel in s

te the pre-eminence, very wisely allowed her to make the best of her talents; contenting herself with the lot to which fortune h

were quite out of their element; and this, indeed, was the case with the bridegroom himself, who being utterly unac

far from entering into conversation with the ladies, he would not even return the compliment, or give the least note of civility when they drank to his health, and, I verily believe, would rather have suffered suffocation than allowed the simple phrase-"your servant," to proceed from his mouth. He was altogether as inflexible with respect to the attitudes of his

s uncouth appearance; but then he was a wit, and though of a very peculiar genius, partook largely of that disposition which is common to all wits,

ourite diversion. Thus rescued, as it were, from a state of annihilation, the first use the two lads of the castle made of their existence, was to ply the bridegroom so hard with bumpers, that in less than an hour he made divers efforts to sing, and soon after was carried to bed, deprived of all manner of sensation, to the utter disappointment of