Those in the least acquainted with the private character of the doctor,
knew that _economy_ and _foresight_ were not amongst the catalogue of
his virtues. In the suite of his pensioners (and he generally enlarged
his list as he enlarged his finances) was the late unfortunate Jack
Pilkington, of scribbling memory, who had served the doctor so many
tricks, that he despaired of getting any more money from him, without
coming out with a _chef d’œuvre_ once for all. He accordingly called on
the doctor one morning, and running about the room in a fit of joy, told
him his fortune was made, “How so, Jack?” says the doctor. “Why,” says
Jack, “the duchess of Marlborough, you must know, has long had a strange
_penchant_ for a pair of _white mice_; now, as I knew they were
sometimes to be had in the East Indies, I commissioned a friend of mine,
who was going out then, to get them for me, and he is this morning
arrived with two of the most beautiful little animals in nature.” After
Jack had finished this account with a transport of joy, he lengthened
his visage by telling the doctor all was ruined, for without _two
guineas_ to buy a cage for the _mice_, he could not present them. The
doctor unfortunately, as he said himself, had but half a guinea in the
world, which he offered him. But Pilkington was not to be beat out of
his scheme; he perceived the doctor’s watch hanging up in his room, and
after premising on the indelicacy of the proposal, hinted, that if he
could spare that watch for a week, he could raise a few guineas on it,
which he would repay him with gratitude. The doctor would not be the
means of spoiling a man’s fortune for such a trifle. He accordingly took
down the watch, and gave it to him, which Jack immediately took to the
pawn-brokers, raised what he could on it, and never once looked after
the doctor, till he sent to borrow another half guinea from him on his
death-bed; which the other, under such circumstances, very generously
sent him.
* * * * *