'Have you not eyes? Are you, a metaphysician, a wit, and a senator, so easily deceived?'
'A man may lose his temper; and with it his caution.'
'So you think yourself able to instruct the world, but not to keep your mind calm and circumspect for half an hour?'
'Had I a sufficient motive, I should suppose I have strength enough for such an exertion.'
'Then try. The exercise will be wholesome. Shew your skill and acuteness. Here is your twenty-pound bill: win and take it; or own that you have no confidence in yourself.'
'I have that confidence which assures me I shall, one day or other, convince you that I understand the road to happiness better than yourself.'
'Yet you are cursedly afraid of me. You scarcely can sit still. You blame your own rashness, in venturing to spend the afternoon with me: and now you would as soon handle burning coals as a pack of cards in my company.'
'And what is it you find so omnipotent in yourself, that it should induce you to all this vapouring?'
'I tell you again, you dare not oppose your penetration to mine. You pretend to despise me, yet own I am your master. A child is not in more fear of the rod than you are of me.'
He saw he had sufficiently piqued me, and rang the bell for cards.
They were brought: he shuffled, cut them, and continued to banter me.