In “Arliquiniana” avarice, and love of gaming, are exemplified by the following anecdote:—
A French woman, who resided on her estate in the country, falling ill, sent to the village curate, and offered to play with him. The curate being used to gaming, gladly entertained the proposal, and they played together till he lost all his money. She then offered to play with him for the expenses of her funeral, in case she should die. They played, and the curate losing these also, she obliged him to give her his note of hand for so much money lent, as her funeral expenses would amount to. She delivered the note to her son, and died within eight or ten days afterwards, and the curate was paid his fees in his own note of hand.
THE TANNER.
An Epigram.
A Bermondsey tanner would often engage,
In a long tête-à-tête with his dame,
While trotting to town in the Kennington stage,
About giving their villa a name.
A neighbour, thus hearing the skin-dresser talk,
Stole out, half an hour after dark,
Pick’d up in the roadway a fragment of chalk,
And wrote on the palings—“Hide Park!”[221]
FRIENDSHIP ON THE NAIL.
When Marigny contracted a friendship with Menage, he told him he was “upon his nail.” It was a method he had of speaking of all his friends; he also used it in his letters; one which he wrote to Menage begins thus: “Oh! illustrious of my nail.”
When Marigny said, “you are upon my nail,” he meant two things—one, that the person was always present, nothing being more easy than to look at his nail; the other was, that good and real friends were so scarce, that even he who had the most, might write their names on his nail.