--As it was on a Sunday I had met
with this fop of divinity, at a genteel table, I thought I had been even
with him, and I believe he thought so too, for he asked me no more
questions; yet he assured me at his going out, "_he had the honour to be
my most obedient humble servant_." This over-strained civility, so
unlike good-breeding, puts me in mind of what was said of poor Sir WM.
ST. Q----N, after his death, by an arch wag at _Bath_: Sir William, you
know, was a polite old gentleman, but had the manners and breeding
rather of the late, than the present age, and though a man deservedly
esteemed for his many virtues, was by some thought too ceremonious.
Somebody at the round table at _Morgan_'s Coffee-house happened to say,
alas! poor Sir William! he is gone; but he was a good man, and is surely
gone to Heaven, and I can tell you what he said when he first entered
the holy gates! the interrogation followed of course: Why, said he,
seeing a large concourse of departed souls, and not a soul that he knew,
he bowed to the right and left, said he begged pardon,--he feared he was
troublesome, and if so, he would instantly retire.
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