Note 141 — Chapter IX · GAMBLING AND SPECULATION.
Reading edition
The passion of women for gambling was a fruitful theme for satire in those days. 'She's a profuse Lady, tho' of a Miserly Temper, whose Covetous Disposition is the very Cause of her Extravagancy; for the Desire of Success wheedles her Ladyship to play, and the incident Charges and Disappointments that attend it, make her as expensive to her Husband, as his Coach and six Horses. When an unfortunate Night has happen'd to empty her Cabinet, she has many Shifts to replenish her Pockets. Her Jewels are carry'd privately into Lombard Street, and Fortune is to be tempted the next Night with another Sum, borrowed of my Lady's Goldsmith at the Extortion of a Pawnbroker; and if that fails, then she sells off her Wardrobe, to the great grief of her Maids; stretches her Credit amongst those she deals with, or makes her Waiting Woman dive into the Bottom of her Trunk, and lug out her green Net Purse full of old Jacobuses, in Hopes to recover her losses by a Turn of Fortune, that she may conceal her bad Luck from the Knowledge of her Husband.'[141]