two Ladies, and fancied he saw a likeness in their persons, by an association of ideas; but in reality, there was as much difference in their crimes as in their persons. Crimes! did I say? that is an improper expression, because I am informed Mrs. Rudd has been acquitted; but that, if the foreign papers might be relied on, Lady Bristol had been found guilty of BIGAMY:  But as he seemed not to understand what I meant by Bigamy, or the association of ideas, I was unavoidably led into a conversation, and explanation, with this young man; which nothing but my pride, and his ignorance, could justify; but as the fellow was overjoyed to see me, I could not help giving him something to drink, and with it a caution never to speak of people of high rank and condition, even behind their backs, but under their proper names or titles, and with decency and respect:  he then begged my pardon, and assured me, if he had known that either of the Ladies had been a friend of mine, he would not have coupled them so improperly together; and I am thoroughly convinced, the man left me with a resolution, never to hazard a conjecture without a better foundation than that he started to me, and which I rather believe he hit off extempore, to speak to me, and shew himself my countryman, than from really suspecting that the woman behind the curtain was either Lady Bristol, or Mrs. Rudd; though I was inclined to think it very probable, for I had seen Lord Bristol on his way through Lyons from Italy to England, and had been informed, Lady Bristol was then on her road to Italy; in which case, I, like the footman, had my conjectures, and accounted for the leather curtains being so closely buckled to.

These are trifling remarks, you will say; but if a sign-painter can paint only a bear, those who employ him must have a bear for their sign; nevertheless, we have all a certain curiosity to know even the most trifling actions, or movements of people, who by their virtues or vices, especially if they are people of rank or condition, have occasioned much talk in the world; and therefore, ridiculous as this incident is, yet as we have long known one of the Ladies, and often admired both, I could not let either one or the other pass me unnoticed, on a road too, where even an English Duchess (if she would own the truth) would feel a secret delight in meeting of a Hyde-park-corner groom.

I have already mentioned what partiality and degree of notice, countrymen take of each other when they meet far from home.  That notice is always in proportion to the distance.  Had my Bonne footman spoke of Lady Bristol, or Mrs. Rudd, in such free terms as how he seed ’em, &c. &c. at Hyde-park-corner, or in Tyburn-road, I should have knocked him down with the but end of my whip; but at Bonne (five hundred miles from either of those places) he and I were quatre cousins; and I could not help treating him with a bottle of vin de pais.