POLITE CONVERSATION, ETC. DIALOGUE III. _The Ladies at their Tea._ _Lady Smart._ Well, Ladies; now let us have a Cup of Discourse to ourselves. _Lady Answ._ What do you think of your Friend, Sir _John Spendall_? _Lady Smart._ Why, Madam,’tis happy for him, that his Father was born before him. _Miss._ They say, he makes a very ill Husband to my Lady. _Lady Answ._ But he must be allow’d to be the fondest Father in the World. _Lady Smart._ Ay, Madam, that’s true; for they say, the Devil is kind to his own. _Miss._ I am told, my Lady manages him to Admiration. _Lady Smart._ That I believe; for she’s as cunning as a dead Pig; but not half so honest. _Lady Answ._ They say, she’s quite a Stranger to all his Gallantries. _Lady Smart._ Not at all; but, you know, there’s none so blind as they that won’t see. _Miss._ O Madam, I am told, she watches him, as a Cat would watch a Mouse. _Lady Answ._ Well, if she ben’t foully belied, she pays him in his own Coin. _Lady Smart._ Madam, I fancy I know your Thoughts, as well as if I were within you. _Lady Answ._ Madam, I was t’other Day in Company with Mrs. _Clatter_; I find she gives herself Airs of being acquainted with your Ladyship. _Miss._ Oh, the hideous Creature! did you observe her Nails? they were long enough to scratch her Granum out of her Grave. _Lady Smart._ Well, She and _Tom Gosling_ were banging Compliments backwards and forwards; it look’d like Two Asses scrubbing one another. _Miss._ Ay, claw me, and I’ll claw thou: But, pray, Madam; who were the Company? _Lady Smart._ Why, there was all the World, and his Wife; there was Mrs. _Clatter_, Lady _Singular_, the Countess of _Talkham_, (I should have named her first;) _Tom Goslin_, and some others, whom I have forgot. _Lady Answ._ I think the Countess is very sickly. _Lady Smart._ Yes, Madam; she’ll never scratch a grey Head, I promise her. _Miss._ And, pray, what was your Conversation? _Lady Smart._ Why, Mrs. _Clatter_ had all the Talk to herself, and was perpetually complaining of her Misfortunes. _Lady Answ._ She brought her Husband Ten Thousand Pounds; she has a Town-House and Country-house: Would the Woman have her —— hung with Points? _Lady Smart._ She would fain be at the Top of the House before the Stairs are built. _Miss._ Well, Comparisons are odious; but she’s as like her Husband, as if she were spit out of his Mouth; as like as one Egg is to another: Pray, how was she drest? _Lady Smart._ Why, she was as fine as Fi’pence; but, truly, I thought, there was more Cost than Worship. _Lady Answ._ I don’t know her Husband: Pray, what is he? _Lady Smart._ Why, he’s a Concealer of the Law; you must know, he came to us as drunk as _David_’s Sow. _Miss._ What kind of Creature is he?