I believe, my lord, that this is all the improvement that can be made
upon the head of pages. I think we can scarcely venture upon the
expedient that would otherwise be admirable, of these interviews being
carried on without the intervention of any such impertinent fellows,
from whom one is ever in danger, without the smallest notice, of having
it published at St. James's-Market, and proclaimed from the statue at
Charing-Cross. If however you should think this expedient adviseable, I
would recommend it to you not to mention it to your gracious master.
Courts are so incumbered and hedged in with ceremony, that the members
of them are always prone to imagine that the form is more essential and
indispensable, than the substance. Suppose then, my lord, you were, by
one of those sly opportunities, which you know so well how to command,
to take off the key in wax, and get a picklock key made exactly upon the
model of it. The end, my lord, take my word for it, would abundantly
sanctify the apparent sordidness of the means. In this situation I
cannot help picturing to myself the surprise and the joy, that would be
in a moment lighted up in the countenance of your friend. Your
rencounter would be as unexpected and fortunate as that of Lady Randolph
and her son, when she fears every moment to have him murdered by
Glenalvon.
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