"
"Thank you; they are the less likely to be loaded. You may retire
for a while. My friends," the Doctor continued, as soon as they were
alone, "Aristotle invented Chance to account for the astonishing fact
that there were certain things in the world which he could not
explain. I appeal to it for as cogent a reason. Indeed, had
Mistress Margaret--whose soul God has this night resumed--had she, I
say, been spared to receive and ponder the two letters which I saw
you deliver at her door; and had she invited me, as a tried friend,
to decide between them, I feel sure I should have ended by putting a
dice-box into her hands. Do not blush. No true man need blush that
he has loved such a woman: and you are both true men, if a trifle
obstinate--_justi et tenaces propositi_. Men of your character,
Flaccus tells us, do not blench at the thunderbolts of Jove himself;
and truly, I can well imagine his missile fizzing harmlessly into
your party hedge, unable to decide between the pavilion of Captain
John and the pavilion of Captain Jeremy. But Chance, being witless,
discriminates without trouble; and because she is blind, her
arbitraments offend nobody's sensibility. Do you consent?"
The two captains looked at the dice-box and nodded.
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