ABSTRACT
These losses and disappointments impaired greatly the foundation of our Doctor’s system, drained his resources, and soured his mind. But misfortune seldom cometh alone, saith the proverb. One false step is generally succeeded by another, and a man much resembleth, in his progress in vice, folly, or misfortune, a falling stone, which increaseth in the velocity of its descent, and bounds more fatally and irresistibly in proportion to the progress it hath made, and the height from which it hath fallen. Mrs. Sourby, as she affected to call herself, had, it seems, or pretended to have, a brother, and numerous cousins and relations, from Ireland, in the neighbourhood. These she / often visited, and more frequently entertained at Independent Hall. The Doctor at first courteously yielded to the natural claims and hospitable disposition of his fair associate, though their manners and conversation were far beneath the level of Sancho’s; but when he found it a growing evil, and that they were, in their freedoms and residence, more like inmates than visitors, and that their conduct became more and more presumptuous, licentious, and riotous, he expostulated with greater severity. How extreme was his surprise, when she peremptorily told him she could not brook such usage, that ‘She could not live like a mopuss, 436 and be debarred the privilege of all wives, that of entertaining her brother and cousins.’
