He was one of those tall, handsome, well-made, strong, and well dressed domestics whom married men commonly (but with what propriety we do not pretend to say) permit to attend upon their wives' persons, and who thereby not uncommonly become great favourites in the families to which they are appendages.

So it was exactly with our hero, William, whom we have distinguished by the title, Knight of the Shoulder-knot. Mrs.

Ayrtoun being now, as young married women frequently are, often indisposed, as often accustomed herself to breakfast in her own apartment, and now and then, when particularly indisposed, in bed. Strange and inconsistent as it may appear, William, the young, the athletic, the masculine William, constantly attended upon those occasions, and the Dame of Gentleness, whose modesty was proverbial among men of her own rank, and whose nature seemed to recede from the approaches of equality, received from his Herculean hands the toast and other necessaries of the first meal. Deborah, my lady's woman, was, it is true, now and then of the party, but, being a person of great natural as well as experimental sagacity, she found that by attending to other avocations she gave as much if not more satisfaction, and therefore generally left the ceremony of the breakfast to William.

The old gentleman being properly disposed of in the country, the grief of our heroine continued to be excessive, and her constitution growing more critical, she was ordered to the Bath waters, and by the same Esculapian authority, her still amorous and fond husband was proscribed from the soft enjoyment of her bed and person, a proscription which, however painful, was agreed to; her health took place of every other consideration, and he flattered himself that by a moderate abstinence from her embraces she would shortly have strength sufficient to embrace him with a greater degree of vigour and transport.