My friend informed me that at first he had
experienced great agony at the ingratitude of Annette, but at last
had made up his mind to forget her, and, in order more effectually
to do so, had left London with the intention of witnessing a fight,
which was shortly coming off at a town in these parts, between some
dogs and a lion; which combat, he informed me, had for some time
past been looked forward to with intense eagerness by the gentlemen
of the sporting world.
I commended him for his resolution, at the same time advising him
not to give up his mind entirely to dog-fighting, as he had
formerly done, but, when the present combat should be over, to
return to his rhetorical studies, and above all to marry some rich
and handsome lady on the first opportunity, as, with his person and
expectations, he had only to sue for the hand of the daughter of a
marquis to be successful, telling him, with a sigh, that all women
were not Annettes, and that, upon the whole, there was nothing like
them. To which advice he answered, that he intended to return to
rhetoric as soon as the lion fight should be over, but that he
never intended to marry, having had enough of women; adding that he
was glad he had no sister, as, with the feelings which he
entertained with respect to her sex, he should be unable to treat
her with common affection, and concluded by repeating a proverb
which he had learnt from an Arab whom he had met at Venice, to the
effect, that, "one who has been stung by a snake, shivers at the
sight of a sting.
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