This motion was too agreeable to Mr. Maclaine to be rejected. It is hardly necessary to detail with what zeal this affair was followed up, or how often they flattered themselves with the deceitful prospects of success. The young lady having been taken to Wells, Maclaine followed her, passing for a man of fortune, and in every part of his dress and equipage appearing in that character. Plunket acted as his partner, and was a sort of under agent, while Maclaine himself was ogling, dancing, and flirting with the young lady. But an ill-timed quarrel with an apothecary, one evening, in the public room, placed a quietus upon his hopes for ever; for the disciple of Galen enlisting a “gallant son of Mars” in his quarrel, the latter had the effrontery to kick our adventurer down stairs, declaring publicly that he knew the rascal a footman a few years ago. This statement, which was believed by every body present, amongst whom was his mistress, whose credulity he had ascertained before, and was therefore not in a situation to doubt, compelled him and his footman Plunket to decamp without the ceremony of leave-taking, and, indeed, without any ceremony at all. Returning to town from this woeful expedition, and examining the state of their cash, these faithful friends discovered that five guineas were the whole that remained,--a sum too little to support them, or to enter into any new project, or to keep up their assumed grandeur. Maclaine now found himself in a worse plight than he had brought himself to for some years past, without any visible hope of a supply, and yet engaged in a mode of life highly expensive, which it went to his heart either to retrench or relinquish. He now thought seriously of embarking for Jamaica, where he hoped to find employment as an accountant, and flattered himself that his person might be turned to account amongst the rich planters’ daughters or widows. But no money was forthcoming for this purpose, nor could he think of any possible scheme whereby it might be raised.