The Adventures of Roderick Random

Failed Schemes to Deceive Strutwell

When the narrator tries to renew his visit to Strutwell in order to put his scheme into execution, he is received in the parlour as before but is told by the valet-de-chambre that his lordship is too unwell to receive company, and is asked to come again at the levee. Interpreting this as an ill omen, the narrator leaves in a fury, but nevertheless besieges Strutwell at his levee, persecuting him with importunate solicitations in the hope of gleaning some advantage. He never obtains another private hearing, however, and lacks the resolution to undeceive Strap, whose anxious, eager looks whenever he comes home betray his mounting impatience for news of the patron’s bounty.

Financial Insolvency and Pawning of the Gold-Inlaid Sword

Reduced to his last guinea, the narrator is forced to disclose his necessity to Strap, tempering the blow by rehearsing the daily assurances received from his patron. Strap, hearing of the low state of their finances, utters a dreadful groan and cries out in despair; the narrator comforts him by pointing to gentlemen in worse case and proposing that the gold-inlaid steel sword be pawned. Though this expedient is gall to Strap, he complies and raises seven pieces in a trifle of time, a sum that lifts the narrator’s spirits for the moment. The supply is soon exhausted when the landlord demands five guineas owed for lodging, which the narrator disburses with an air of scorn, though he is secretly thunderstruck and Strap wrings his hands in despair.

Unexpected Success at the Gaming Tables

At dinner in the coffee-house and afterwards at the tavern, the narrator cannot share in the company’s mirth, and wine has lost its customary effect upon him. Banter, perceiving his anxiety, reproaches him with pusillanimity and, on learning he has less than two guineas left, assures him there are a thousand ways of living by wit and conducts him to a gaming house under the piazzas in Covent Garden kept by a Scottish lord who enjoys the privilege of his peerage. Although horrified by the villainous faces of the sitters and bettors, the narrator is persuaded to begin by risking a shilling, wins thirty within an hour, advances to the gold table, and by broad day finds himself 150 guineas in pocket. An irate Gascon demanding “mon ravanchio” and a Jewish sitter insinuating that his gains were owing to greasy wiping of the table move the losers to threaten a warrant for sharper’s practice; but the narrator, relying on his innocence, threatens prosecution for defamation and offers to submit to any Westminster justice, whereupon they drop their plea and allow him to withdraw after the Israelite has retracted and asked pardon before the assembly.

Strap’s Ecstasy Over the Windfall

As the narrator leaves with his winnings, he treads on the toes of a tall, raw-boned fellow who roars out a tremendous oath and demands gentlemanly satisfaction; the narrator humbles himself at first but, provoked by scandalous names, returns the abuse and challenges the man to the piazzas, where the fellow, his indignation cooling, refuses and retires muttering. He returns home to find Strap, who has sat up all night in tears, waiting in the attitude of a condemned criminal; the narrator assumes a sullen look and bids him fetch water to wash, then spreads his entire stock upon the table. Strap, struck as if entranced, rubs his eyes and cries out upon the vast treasure, and on hearing the story of the gaming-table success, dances about the room in an ecstasy, exclaiming “God be praised!—a white stone!—God be praised!—a white stone!” so wildly that the narrator, fearing his intellects are disordered, lays violent hands upon him and fixes him to a settee. Restored, Strap explains that he alludes to the Roman Dies fasti, when fortunate days were marked with a white stone.

Mrs. Gawky’s Remorseful Plea for Assistance

As the narrator is about to go abroad, a young woman of shabby, decayed appearance is shown up to his room; after half a dozen curtsies she begins to sob and gives her name as Gawky, whereupon he recognises Miss Lavement, the first occasion of his misfortunes. Moved by her distress, he inquires into her situation, and she falls upon her knees, imploring forgiveness and protesting that she was forced, against her inclination, into the hellish conspiracy against him by the entreaties of her husband, who was afterwards renounced by his father for the marriage, unable to support a family on his pay, and went with the regiment to Germany, where he was broken for misbehaviour at the battle of Dettingen, since which she has heard no tidings of him. She further relates that she bore a child four months after marriage, that the infant died soon after, that her parents turned her out of doors, and that she has since subsisted miserably on the extorted charity of friends now quite tired of giving; having no other resource, she has fled for succour even to him, of all mankind least obliged to assist her.