softness, my lord flew into raptures rather too strong for the place he was in. These the lady gently checked, and begged him to take care they were not observed; for that her husband, for aught she knew, was then in the room.
Colonel James came now up, and said, 'So, madam, I have the good fortune to find you again; I have been extremely miserable since I lost you.' The lady answered in her masquerade voice that she did not know him. 'I am Colonel James,' said he, in a whisper. 'Indeed, sir,' answered she, 'you are mistaken; I have no acquaintance with any Colonel James.' 'Madam,' answered he, in a whisper likewise, 'I am positive I am not mistaken, you are certainly Mrs. Booth.' 'Indeed, sir,' said she, 'you are very impertinent, and I beg you will leave me.' My lord then interposed, and, speaking in his own voice, assured the colonel that the lady was a woman of quality, and that they were engaged in a conversation together; upon which the colonel asked the lady's pardon; for, as there was nothing remarkable in her dress, he really believed he had been mistaken.
He then went again a hunting through the rooms, and soon after found Booth walking without his mask between two ladies, one of whom was in a blue domino, and the other in the dress of a shepherdess. 'Will,' cries the colonel, 'do you know what is become of our wives; for I have seen neither of them since we have been in the room?' Booth answered, 'That he supposed they were both together, and they should find them by and by.' 'What!' cries the lady in the blue domino, 'are you both come upon duty then with your wives? as for yours, Mr. Alderman,' said she to the colonel, 'I make no question but she is got into much better company than her husband's.' 'How can you be so cruel, madam?' said the shepherdess; 'you will make him beat his wife by and by, for he is a military man I assure you.' 'In the trained bands, I presume,' cries the domino, 'for he is plainly dated from the city.' 'I own, indeed,' cries the other, 'the gentleman smells strongly of Thames-street, and, if I may venture to guess, of the honourable calling of a taylor.'
'Why, what the devil hast thou picked up here?' cries James.
'Upon my soul, I don't know,' answered Booth; 'I wish you would take one of them at least.'
'What say you, madam?' cries the domino, 'will you go with the colonel? I assure you, you have mistaken your man, for he is no less a person than the great Colonel James himself.'
[Illustration: Booth between the blue domino and a Shepherdess.]
'No wonder, then, that Mr. Booth gives him his choice of us; it is the proper office of a caterer, in which capacity Mr. Booth hath, I am told, the honour to serve the noble colonel.'
'Much good may it do you with your ladies!' said James; 'I will go in pursuit of better game.' At which words he walked off.
'You are a true sportsman,' cries the shepherdess; 'for your only pleasure, I believe, lies in the pursuit.'
'Do you know the gentleman, madam?' cries the domino.
'Who doth not know him?' answered the shepherdess.
'What is his character?' cries the domino; 'for, though I have jested with him, I only know him by sight.'
'I know nothing very particular in his character,' cries the shepherdess. 'He gets every handsome woman he can, and so they do all.'
'I suppose then he is not married?' said the domino.
'O yes! and married for love too,' answered the other; 'but he hath loved away all his love for her long ago, and now, he says, she makes as fine an object of hatred. I think, if the fellow ever appears to have any wit, it is when he abuses his wife; and, luckily for him, that is his favourite topic. I don't know the poor wretch, but, as he describes her, it is a miserable animal.'
'I know her very well,' cries the other; 'and I am much mistaken if she is not even with him; but hang him! what is become of Booth?'
At this instant a great noise arose near that part where the two ladies were. This was occasioned by a large assembly of young fellows
