He then took a chair, pulled a pair of hand-glasses
out of his pocket, laid them on his knees, broke the seals, and falling
back so as to recline, commenced reading. As soon as he had finished the
first letter, he put his glasses down from his eyes, and made a bow to
Ramsay, folded the open letter the length of the sheet, took out his
pencil, and on the outside wrote the date of the letter, the day of the
month, name, and the name of the writer. Having done this, he laid the
first letter down on the table, took up the second, raised up his
glasses, and performed the same duty towards it, and thus he continued
until he had read the whole six; always, as he concluded each letter,
making the same low bow to Ramsay which he had after the perusal of the
first. Ramsay, who was not a little tired of all this precision, at last
fixed his eyes upon a Wouvermann which hung near him, and only took them
off when he guessed the time of bowing to be at hand.
The last having been duly marked and numbered, Mynheer Van Krause turned
to Ramsay, and said, "I am most happy, mynheer, to find under my roof a
young gentleman so much recommended by many valuable friends; moreover,
as these letters give me to understand, so warm a friend to our joint
sovereign, and so inimical to the Jacobite party.
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337