And where admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful Dog should bear him company.
In a word, by thus introducing an entire new set of objects to his Imagination, I shall unavoidably give a Diversion to his passionate and love-sick Contemplations. In the meantime,
I am
THE AUTHOR.
[BOOK IX]
[ CHAPTER I]
I call all the powers of time and chance, which severally check us in our careers in this world, to bear me witness, that I could never yet get fairly to my uncle Toby’s amours, till this very moment, that my mother’s curiosity, as she stated the affair,——or a different impulse in her, as my father would have it——wished her to take a peep at them through the key-hole.
“Call it, my dear, by its right name, quoth my father, and look through the key-hole as long as you will.”
Nothing but the fermentation of that little subacid humour, which I have often spoken of, in my father’s habit, could have vented such an insinuation——he was however frank and generous in his nature, and at all times open to conviction; so that he had scarce got to the last word of this ungracious retort, when his conscience smote him.