D’Estrapes Plans the Discharge
The two men agree on a course of action: d’Estrapes will wait on the Marquis in the morning and claim to have accidentally found the nobleman’s long-lost brother serving as a private soldier in the regiment of Picardy. He will then implore the Marquis to use his interest to obtain a discharge for Random.
Nighttime Reflections on a Career
Before he can devise any feasible project, Random reflects on possible careers and dismisses each in turn. The smallness of their stock deters him from trade; the profession is already overstocked in his own country, and in England he would lack friends and face powerful opposition. He likewise refuses to rise in the state through flattery, pimping for courtiers, or prostituting his pen in defence of a contemptible administration.
A Dream of Narcissa
Exhausted by his fruitless scheming, Random falls asleep and is visited by a dream in which Narcissa smiles upon his passion and offers her hand as the reward of all his toils.
Strap’s Fortune-Hunting Proposal
Early the next morning Random finds d’Estrapes exulting in a “lucky thought” he considers superior to any of Random’s learned notions. His bold plan: Random should appear as the gentleman he truly is and make addresses to a lady of fortune who can render him independent at once. D’Estrapes offers his ducal-quality clothes, suggests a short trip to Paris to procure all other necessaries, and proposes to attend Random in England in the quality of a valet, thereby saving the expense of a servant, shaving, and dressing.
The Plan to Woo a Lady of Fortune
D’Estrapes insists the scheme is both prudent and honourable: he would not have Random throw himself away on a sickly old dame, nor cheat some poor lady by imitating a wealthy squire, as common fortune-hunters do. Knowing Random’s genuine merits of mind and body, he believes they entitle him to a match that will set him above the world. Random listens with pleasure because the proposal flatters his vanity and indulges the ridiculous hope he has begun to entertain of inspiring Narcissa with a mutual flame.
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